Leeds United are three games away of making a return to the Premier League.
Former Premier League striker Dean Ashton has predicted that Leeds United will win the Championship next season and earn promotion alongside Middlesbrough and Huddersfield.
It’s a bittersweet comment for the Elland Road faithful to hear because whilst they’ll like the idea of Ashton tipping them for promotion, it also means that he is predicting them to fail in the up and coming playoffs.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side will take on Derby County in a two-legged affair, with the winner taking on either Aston Villa or West Brom in the final at Wembley in May.
Speaking to EFL on Quest (05/05/2019 at 10:25 pm), Ashton was asked about who he thinks will earn promotion to England’s top-flight next term.
“Well, I think Aston Villa will get promoted this season, so Leeds will be champions next season,” Ashton told Quest. “And Middlesbrough I fancy as well. And Huddersfield to go up via the playoffs.”
Considering how long Leeds have been outside of the Premier League for, they may well just take earning promotion next season.
For large parts of this campaign, it looked likely that they would finish in the automatic places alongside Norwich City, but a bad Easter period derailed those hopes.
They now go into the playoffs against Derby in a bad run of form after they suffered a damaging 3-2 defeat at already-relegated Ipswich Town on the final day of the regular season.
The one positive for Bielsa and his players is that the team that has finished in third place during the last two campaigns has gone on to win promotion.
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