Friday 6 March 2015 12:55, UK
Former Wolves striker Chris Iwelumo has told Sky Sports News HQ it is now harder to gain promotion to the Premier League than ever before.
Over the past decade, 93 points has been the average points total to win the Championship title while teams have required 86 points on average to reach the promised land of the top flight.
Seventy-six points has been the number for a play-off place, and on average, the magical 50-point mark has been the total for survival in a notoriously competitive division.
Six points currently separates the top seven places in the Championship with another busy weekend of action to come after which there will be just 10 games remaining.
When we (Wolves) went up there were probably seven to 10 teams that were capable of gaining promotion. Now you're looking at 18 or 19 teams.
"It's definitely harder," said Iwelumo, who gained promotion with Wolves as Champions in 2008/09 with 90 points. "Before any Championship season now, there can be 18 teams that are all capable of gaining promotion.
"There is so much expectation, but there are so many big teams with a lot of money and big squads that have that expectation hanging over them.
"When we went up, there were probably seven to 10 teams that were capable of gaining promotion. Now you're looking at 18 or 19 teams.
"This is the money part of the season and for me, that Championship season of mine finished with seven games to go but I was in and around the club and you knew what it took," said Iwelumo, who also spent time at Stoke, Colchester, Charlton, Burnley and Watford during his career.
"We had a magical squad with a lot of quality playing fluent, expansive football and scored goals from all over the pitch which is a massive must.
"Mentally, you look at the next match, we were more attacking than defensively minded, so we went into every match thinking 'we'll just go there and score more goals than them' and we did. Goals were coming from everywhere."
Meanwhile, pundit Tony Gale added: "There are a lot of big clubs but I wouldn't call them big teams. There are a lot of clubs that have been massive in the Premier League, but the teams and squads have dwindled.
"Now I would anticipate clubs having a little bit of a gamble, getting a few in, paying big money because the gambles are so great - £100 million at stake."
