Conor Chaplin in, David Brooks out: The best combined Leeds, Southampton and Ipswich Town XI | OneFootball

The promotion race in the Championship looks like it will be an exciting one this season.

Although Leicester City, on their current form, look like running away with the division, the race for second is well and truly on.

Indeed, Southampton, Ipswich Town and Leeds United are all battling for that spot and the lucrative promotion to the top-flight that it brings, and it will certainly be exciting to see who ends up on top come May.

Combined Leeds, Southampton and Ipswich Town XI

In the meantime, for a bit of fun, we thought we'd take a look at what a starting XI might look like if we combined all three squads.

Naturally, some selections will split opinion, of course, and there are some tough decisions to make.

That being said, below is the XI that we came up with.

GK: Illan Meslier

Arguably one of the harder decisions, as all three clubs have solid goalkeepers.

Given Meslier has more clean sheets than the other two, we went for the Frenchman on this occasion.

RB: Kyle Walker-Peters

Whilst the goalkeeping spot was a tough choice, this one was not too difficult.

Walker-Peters has been excellent this campaign and, as such, gets the nod at right-back in this XI.

CB: Taylor Harwood-Bellis

Alongside Kyle Walker-Peters, it only makes sense to have a Southampton central defender in Taylor Harwood-Bellis.

The English centre-half is top quality when it comes to Championship centre-backs and any club in the division would be lucky to have him.

CB: Joe Rodon

The second centre-back spot was another tough position to call, and Daniel Farke may soon have the same dilemma when Pascal Struijk returns to fitness to challenge Joe Rodon and Ethan Ampadu.

Over Struijk, though, we've gone with Rodon here, given he seems to be the most important centre-back on the books at Elland Road.

LB: Leif Davis

Another player coming in for high praise this campaign has been Leif Davis, who gets the nod at left-back.

With 13 assists to his name, he is top of the division when it comes to laying on goals for his teammates.

The duo of Samy Morsy and Massimo Luongo feels hard to ignore in midfield given how vital they have been for Ipswich Town this season. However, there is so much midfield talent on show for all three of these sides that they have to be overlooked.

The likes of Will Smallbone, Glen Kamara and the above duo deserve shouts, but we've gone for Flynn Downes, who, after coming back to the Championship on loan from West Ham, has shown flashes of why the Hammers signed him in the first place.

Alongside Downes, we have selected Ethan Ampadu of Leeds United.

Although he has transitioned to centre-back in recent weeks, before that, he was doing well for the Whites in midfield, and comes with plenty of top-flight experience for his age.

For some attacking threat from midfield, we've elected Ipswich Town's Conor Chaplin.

The 26-year-old is just shy of double figures for both goals and assists at present.

Kicking off the front three, we've gone with Saints attacker Adam Armstrong.

Able to operate on the right, where he is playing in this lineup, Armstrong is enjoying a fruitful campaign down on the South Coast so far this season, and has proven himself time and time again at Championship level.

Of course, Saints teammate David Brooks misses out as a result, who would have a great shout of being in this team on talent alone, but he's yet to really get going on the South Coast having just arrived at the Saints, so he misses out for the time being.

LW: Crysencio Summerville

On the opposite flank to Armstrong, we've gone for exciting Leeds United man Crysencio Summerville.

The former Dutch youth player is hugely exciting to watch, and with 20+ direct goal contributions this campaign, he adds plenty of attacking threat to this line-up.

ST: Georginio Rutter

Although there are strikers with more goals, Georginio Rutter's all-round game means we've gone with him through the middle of attack, with the 21-year-old able to score and assist - his assist record is impressive at this point.

The Frenchman has previously been described by some as the 'glue' that holds Leeds United's attack together, and we think he'd do a similar job in this line-up.