Danny Mills interview: Ex-Leeds United defender on his former club's chances of promotion to Premier League

The Whites have impressed in the early stages of the Championship this season, although find themselves below the automatic promotion slots.

Table-toppers Leicester City lead Daniel Farke’s men by 11 points, while seven points separate Leeds and second-placed Ipswich Town.

Mills, a former Leeds regular and England international, has insisted it is too early to condemn the club to a finish below the top two.

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post via Grosvenor Sport, he said: “There's a long, long way to go yet in the Championship. We're barely a quarter of the way through.

"Strength in depth, they've got to keep players fit, managing the way that they play.

"When you look at the players they've got - [Crysencio] Summerville's a good player. Dan James at that level is a very, very good player. Sam Byram's come in, he's obviously been away, and he's now got experience.

"[Joe] Rodon's played at this level before. [Georginio] Rutter looks like he's happier at this level.

"You've got strength in depth on the bench, youngster's coming through, I think they've got a great chance to make [an] automatic [promotion place].”

A recent win over Leicester City closed the gap between the Whites and the Foxes, although the latter are still strong favourites to be crowned Championship winners in May.

Leeds currently occupy a play-off spot but the end-of-season showcase is understandably something the Elland Road faithful may want to avoid.

The brutal knockout format can render a season’s progress futile and Leeds have painful play-off memories.

Doncaster Rovers and Millwall both denied the club returns to the Championship in the late 2000s, a decade before Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds were defeated by Derby County.

Bielsa’s men bounced back to win the Championship title at the end of the following season, although there have been examples of clubs fading away in the aftermath of play-off heartbreak.

Leeds’ Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town serve as a reminder of the brutal nature of the play-offs, having regressed since losing to Nottingham Forest at Wembley in 2022.

Mills said: “Automatic promotion has to be the benchmark. That's what they've got to be looking for, nobody wants to be going through the play-offs.

"We saw that under [Marcelo] Bielsa when they played Derby. It can go catastrophically wrong in the space of 45 minutes after you've had a very, very long, relatively productive season.”