The 2017 sporting year is rapidly becoming the reign of Spain.

Barcelona overturned a 4-0 first leg deficit against PSG to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid - the opponents for sole English representatives Leicester City - are also in the last eight, so there is every chance a Spanish team will be crowned kings of Europe in Cardiff in the first week of June.

Sergio Garcia has finally shed the tag of best golfer never to win a Major with his absorbing victory over Justin Rose in the Masters at Augusta.

The Argus: And Bruno (above) is going to lead Albion into the Premier League, possibly as champions.

The view from my back garden looks out over the club's training complex at Lancing and a farm.

There are no chickens. If there were I'd be counting them - and it wouldn't take long. Only one or two.

It is no longer a matter of if but when Albion are promoted. The more relevant poser now is first or second?

Doubling their lead over Huddersfield in third to 12 points in the three games since the international break, with a goal difference advantage of 30, has taken them to the brink of a dream fulfilled.

Theoretically, they still need seven points from the remaining five fixtures to turn their charge to the top flight into a mathematical certainty.

I say theoretically, because the reality will be different. They could fail to claim another point and I'd still fancy their chances.

Can you really see Huddersfield, beaten in two of the last three games, winning four and drawing one of their remaining six?

Or Reading, annihalated at Norwich on Saturday, or Leeds finishing with five straight victories?

Only ultra-pessimists, like those absurdly predicting not so long ago that 96 or 97 points might be needed, would take any of these hypotheses seriously.

Albion are going up and out, in the process, of the most competitive league in world football.

Nobody who was at Loftus Road on Friday evening would doubt the validity of that statement.

Queens Park Rangers, 16th with no chance of elevation or relegation, went 2-0 down when Seb Pocognoli curled in a delicious free-kick.

What happened in the following half-hour emphasised how hard and well-earned Albion's reward will be.

No flip-flops, no meandering towards an inevitable fate. Rangers pulled a goal back and proceeded to throw everything - the kitchen, not just the sink - at the Seagulls' makeshift defence missing the ill-again Lewis Dunk.

 

Albion can anticipate nothing less from their Good Friday visit to Wolverhampton Wanderers, a point and a place above Rangers in the table and back at Molineux seeking a fourth straight home win.

The Championship has been a gruelling, intriguing and entertaining home for the Amex's six seasons. A far better home than League Two, which Albion were staring in the face again just eight years ago today after losing to Swindon at Withdean.

They are, nevertheless, moving out at the right time. Before Sheffield United, already promoted from League One, and Bolton make it even harder.

The Argus: Before chairman Tony Bloom (above) loses even more money, because the Championship is an expensive business if you have never been in the Premier League.

And before manager Chris Hughton loses some of his best players. Another year in the second tier would have left major question marks hanging over the futures of the likes of Dunk, David Stockdale and Anthony Knockaert.

The Championship has been a blast. But for the time being, as they say in Spain, hasta la vista.