"Straight back down" - Exclusive: Sky Sports pundit pours water on Bristol City's Premier League hopes | OneFootball

It's a tough ask for promoted Championship sides these days.

Don Goodman doesn't see a world in which Bristol City would be able to maintain their Premier League status if they were to get promoted from the Championship this season.

The Robins have been able to escape the mid-table shackles that have been on them for so long and make a real go at finishing inside the top six. With six games left to play, they sit just inside the play-off spots, level on points with fifth-placed Middlesbrough but also only just ahead of Coventry City and West Bromwich Albion in seventh and eighth, respectively.

It marks a real change compared to seasons past, where the best that they have managed since returning to the second tier was eighth in the 2018/19 campaign. They have always had aspirations to push on further, but this is the first time that they have actually mounted a serious challenge to the other promotion hopefuls.

Bristol City have slim chances of survival if they were to win promotion

It's been 45 years since City were last in England's top division. Getting them back to the top of the mountain would be some achievement for Liam Manning and his players, but, even if they were to go up this season, Goodman, a Sky Sports pundit and commentator, wouldn't expect them to last long at the top table, given the recent history of promoted clubs.

He exclusively told Football League World: "Bristol City, what a season they are having. It's a long shot anyway that they'll get promoted, even if they do get promoted. I do think the top four are hugely better than the rest, and I think they've proved that over the course of the season.

"But let's play hypothetically. If they did get promoted to the Premier League, then you only have to look at the last two seasons; it's almost a certainty that the three promoted teams from the Championship will be the three that get relegated from the Premier League.

"From last season, obviously Southampton are already confirmed (to be going down) and it's hard, the gulf is hard, let along if you're a Bristol City who, with respect to them, are not of the standing of a Leicester City or an Ipswich Town or even a Southampton.

"Of course they don't currently have a squad that is capable of competing. They'd have to invest, and they would have to invest wisely. That is the only way that you go from being a Championship (club) to sustaining a Premier League survival challenge.

"Sadly for the three this season and the three last season, their recruitment wasn't spot on and ultimately they've ended up coming straight back down."

Reaching the play-offs would represent major progress for Bristol City

Breaking into the top spots can be hard for teams who have not done it for many years, like the Robins. The money being earned by those coming down from the Premier League to the Championship is on another level compared to their soon-to-be competitors.

City aren't on a level playing field with the likes of Burnley, Leeds United, Sheffield United, Sunderland and Middlesbrough. They have far bigger arsenals to deploy, and yet Manning's side are competing.

The dream is to ascend to the summit of English football, of course, but it should also be recognised what an achievement it is to break into this very competitive top six, should City do so.