Leeds United, Sheffield United and Burnley issued promotion warning as Gary Neville makes 'risks' admission

The Whites and the Blades are currently vying for automatic promotion to the Premier League, with Scott Parker’s Burnley also in the mix.

However, among fans there may be underlying fears of what comes next if the so-called ‘promised land’ is reached.

In recent years, clubs promoted from the Championship have found adapting to life in the top flight incredibly tough.

Leeds bucked the trend with their surge into the top half in the 2020/21 campaign, but were back in the second tier by 2023.

Last season, Luton Town, Burnley and Sheffield United were relegated just a year on from their respective promotions.

History looks set to repeat with last season’s promoted clubs Ipswich Town, Leicester City and Southampton making up the bottom three.

Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, pundit and Manchester United legend Gary Neville said: "The risks that you have to take to stay in means that if you go back down with the parachute [payments] it means you are going down financially, so you're frightened to go for it.

"What you're seeing now is teams going up and thinking 'there's no point going for it that much, we'll try and outperform it so at least we're not going under financially'. It's getting to a point now where the gap is getting bigger."

Nottingham Forest are an example of a club who took risks in order to ensure their survival in the top flight. After beating Huddersfield Town to promotion in 2022, the club invested heavily in players capable of performing on the grand stage.

Neville’s fellow pundit Roy Keane suggested promoted clubs could make themselves harder to beat, with already-relegated Southampton among those to have faced criticism for their open style of play.

He said: "You can't keep doing what you're doing, whatever that might be. What do you do when you get promoted? Be hard to beat and certainly more than what they (Southampton) have been.

"I look at the teams that went down last year, Sheffield United got beat 8-0 at home, they're getting hammered. One off-game can happen like that but you have to give yourselves a bit of a chance."

Ian Wright, meanwhile, suggested clubs in the middle of the Premier League pack are growing stronger and increasing the difficulty for promoted clubs.

He said: "The middle teams are continually getting stronger, look where the middle teams are now, look at Brighton, Villa and Fulham, Brentford and Bournemouth having a go. All these teams are getting so much better than the teams that are coming up."

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