Former Leeds United ace offers triple hope to Whites amid strong next season prediction

Leeds are heading for a second consecutive season back in the Championship following defeat to Southampton in the play-off final, after which the Whites were quickly installed as clear ‘favourites’ to win the division next term.

Daniel Farke’s Whites will not have automatically promoted pair Leicester City or Ipswich Town to worry about – or Russell Martin’s Saints – but relegated trio Burnley, Luton Town and Sheffield United are among the sides predicted to offer the sternest opposition.

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Last season’s fellow top-six finishers West Brom and Norwich City are also among the bookmakers’ ideas of next season’s leading contenders – along with Middlesbrough and Coventry City – yet Farke’s Whites are comfortably clear as 4-1 market leaders at the top of the pile.

Speaking to the YEP, ex-Leeds midfielder David Prutton admitted he was no expert on the matter, but equally declared that he could understand such confidence in Leeds given what relegated trio Burnley, Luton and the Blades had been used to last term.

"I can see why they have been installed as favourites,” Prutton told the YEP.

“Because naturally you look at Leeds in the Championship and you say ‘they are a big team and they should be doing X, Y and Z’. I've got no real understanding of how the betting markets work but I can absolutely see why they would be favourites.

"You have three teams coming down in Sheffield United, Burnley and Luton Town that have got used to possibly defending for their lives and being beaten whereas Leeds have gone a season of attacking football that has nearly got them back into the Premier League. That's possibly why they are seen as favourites.”