Millwall boss Gary Rowett believes Leeds United will be a very difficult place to go next season, but insists their return to the Championship does not make them automatic favourites for promotion. The Lion boss points to the example of Watford, who were relegated from the Premier League back in 2022 and failed to bounce back at the first time of asking.
Rowett says Leeds, Leicester City and Southampton, will need to earn the right of promotion. When asked about the three recently relegated Premier League sides, the Lions boss told the South London Press : “They are all very good teams and very strong clubs. Leeds is always a very difficult place to go.
"Southampton are quite a young squad with the likes of Che Adams and Adam Armstrong who have played and done well in the Championship. Leicester is a club I played at for a while – it’s incredible to see them back in the Championship after being so good and winning the title.
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“You don’t know (how those clubs will perform). There are so many things that happen. Clubs trying to stay in the Premier League have to change course and change direction away from where they were.
"They are all very different clubs to the ones they were in the Championship. I’ve been doing this now for a good few years and every season everyone says the same – It’s going to be a tougher league, or it’s going to be more open or there is no outstanding team this year.
"But if you actually look at the points and the teams, it always works itself out to be more or less the same. There are always two or three outstanding teams, there are always two or three that struggle – where you think they would be stronger. It is much of a muchness.
“It is going to be strong and certainly they (Leeds, Leicester and Southampton) are three teams who are going to be big ones in the division but it’s no different to Watford this year, it’s no different to other teams who have been there and wanted to get out. It’s a tough old league – it doesn’t really care about reputations.
“What you’ve got to do is earn your right to get out of this league. It’s a very difficult league to get out of, as we know.”
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