Leeds United sent 'huge' Championship promotion warning amid Sunderland and West Brom point
Leeds United are well-placed for another promotion push but know how fine the margins will be.
Darren Bent has warned that ‘huge’ teams will miss out on Championship promotion as the league’s big-hitters start working towards the top of the table.
The 2024/25 campaign is now 15 games old and starting to take shape, with early promotion outliers beginning to falter while genuine contenders find form. Among those who have sustained momentum are Leeds United, who bounced back from just their second league defeat of the season at Millwall to beat Queens Park Rangers 2-0 on Saturday.
Results elsewhere leave Daniel Farke’s side third going into the international break with a host of much-fancied Championship rivals around them including Sunderland, Sheffield United, Burnley and West Brom. Only three can reach the Premier League, however, and some big teams will inevitably miss out.
“There is a huge club which isn’t going up,” Bent told talkSPORT. “You’ve got Sunderland, Sheffield United, Leeds, Burnley, West Brom, Watford are playing really well, and Middlesbrough up there… Norwich are fourteenth! Someone huge is not making it.”
After varied starts, many of those expected to challenge for promotion are working their way up the league, with only Norwich City and Coventry City seriously under-performing their pre-season expectations. Sunderland look set to be the surprise package, having finished 16th last season before hiring relative unknown Regis Le Bris.
The Black Cats remain top but have slipped up in recent weeks, drawing their last three against Preston, QPR and Coventry City. The latter saw them throw away a two-goal lead on Saturday, allowing Sheffield United to pull level on points and Leeds to close their gap from four points to two.
Leeds have more points on the board compared to this point last year and are much closer to the automatic promotion places, thanks in part to the absence of early form shown by last season’s top-two Leicester City and Ipswich Town. But Farke’s side will likely have to come close to their 90-point tally from the previous campaign and know how fine the margins can be.
But the Whites could put themselves top of the table far earlier than last season, with the chance to leapfrog both Sheffield United and Sunderland as soon as next weekend. Unlikely though that may be, a favourable run of fixtures could provide Leeds with a realistic chance to go top before the festive fixture chaos arrives.
Sheffield United and Sunderland actually meet at Bramall Lane later this month, with both also having to face other promotion rivals over the upcoming six game period. Leeds have a tricky game against Middlesbrough in December but should view those in and around as winnable.