My colleagues up and down the country are a wise bunch.

Four Albion players are in the Championship team of the season, announced yesterday.

Automatic promotion rivals Newcastle and Huddersfield have only two players apiece in the line-up, along with Leeds.

David Stockdale, Lewis Dunk, Anthony Knockaert and Glenn Murray all deserve their places in the top X1.

I would have picked them too - if I had been able to.

Clubs are asked to nominate a representative from their local media for the selection process. They are disallowed from choosing players from the club they cover.

Six of my team made the final cut - Leeds central defender Pontus Jansson, Fulham left-back Scott Malone, central midfielders Jonjo Shelvey (Newcastle, below right) and Aaron Mooy (Huddersfield), together with strikers Chris Wood (Leeds) and Dwight Gayle (Newcastle).

The Argus: I plumped for Gayle's team-mate De Andre Yedlin at right-back, rather than Huddersfield's Tommy Smith.

Newcastle captain Jamaal Lascells got the nod in the middle in the absence of Dunk.

The spaces without Knockaert and Murray were taken in my side by Fulham's Tom Cairney and Huddersfield's Elias Kachunga.

Cairney, for my money, can count himself particularly unfortunate not to have made it.

Mind you, this management lark is by no means as simple as it seems. Try it for yourself.

 

Pick your own non-Albion X1 from the Championship, in the specified 4-3-3 formation, and then consider who you have left out.

I am kicking myself, for example, for omitting Matt Ritchie.

Others with valid claims include Ali Al Habsi (below), Kieren Westwood, Chris Gunter, Kyle Bartley, Isaiah Brown, Conor Hourihane and Tammy Abraham.

The Argus: The job is best left to experts like Chris Hughton and David Wagner.

The German has been chosen over the Albion boss as manager of the Championship 'fantasy' X1.

I can understand why. Wagner has transformed Huddersfield, 19th last time, in his first full season in charge in much the same way as Hughton did with the Seagulls last year.

He's had to adapt to a different country and has turned around the fortunes of the West Yorkshiremen on a relatively small budget.

Hughton was selected last year, when Albion's revival was at a similar stage to that of Huddersfield.

His achievement in making the Seagulls even better equipped for promotion since the agony of going so close last season should not be under-estimated.

We had to make our selections by March 15. Choosing Wagner over Hughton may look a little foolish by May 7.

It will be interesting to see now which of Albion's quartet emulate skipper Bruno in 2015-16 with inclusion in the overall Football League team of the season, picked by a panel of experts and unveiled at the annual awards on April 9.

By that time they will be three matches closer to the accolade that matters most to all of them - classification as Premier League players.

Championship team of the season: Stockdale; Smith, Jansson, Dunk, Malone; Knockaert, Mooy, Shelvey; Gayle, Murray, Wood.

Alternative team: Al Habsi; Bruno, Bartley, Lascells, Lowe; Cairney, Hourihane, Brown; Ritchie, Abraham, Kachunga.