Ally McCoist issues Leeds United, West Brom and Luton Town promotion prediction | OneFootball

Pundit Ally McCoist outlined his early Championship promotion predictions for the 2024/25 campaign

The play-off final may have been less than a month ago, but attention has turned to the upcoming 2024/25 season, and clubs up and down the country will have started planning for the new campaign.

It's always difficult to predict who'll be in contention for promotion at this stage of the season, but you'd expect the relegated Premier League clubs to be there or thereabouts, as well as Leeds United, who were losing play-off finalists at the end of May.

However, as Ipswich Town showed last season, there's always a surprise package, and you wouldn't have found many people tipping them to win promotion this time last year, so there's bound to be plenty of twists and turns in the months to come.

We won't know how each squad will look until the end of the transfer window in August, which will obviously have a bearing on each teams' promotion hopes, but that hasn't stopped people from nailing their colours to the mast at this stage.

Former professional footballer and manager, now turned pundit, Ally McCoist has given his early Championship promotion predictions, and it's good news for Leeds United supporters.

Speaking to Football League World, McCoist said: "I’d firstly go with Leeds. I think they’ll kick on from the disappointment of the playoff final defeat.

"They could easily drop off, but I don’t think they will – their support won’t allow it. I can see them getting promoted."

As for the relegated Premier League clubs, McCoist doesn't fancy Sheffield United's chances, but thinks Luton Town could take heart from their brave campaign in the top-flight.

He said: "I don’t see Sheffield United coming back up, but I would love to see Luton Town get promoted again.

"I know they got relegated, but out of the clubs that went down last season, I thought they were the ones that gave it a real go.

"Burnley and Sheffield United never really got going, but every time teams would face Luton, they’d know they were in a game. If they can keep that spirit and that siege mentality that they’ve got at home, I think they can go up as well. I’d love to see them do it – I know they went down last year, but I enjoyed the level of performances. "I’m expecting a more consistent challenge from West Brom next season, to be honest with you. They were another team who were on the periphery a little bit, and I think they can dig a bit deeper and go one further next season.

"If you were to put me in a corner, I’d say West Brom, Luton and Leeds."

It's fair to say that the relegated trio of Sheffield United, Burnley and Luton don't look anywhere near as strong as Leeds, Southampton and Leicester the previous season, and this should give other clubs the chance to compete for promotion.

Of course, anything could happen, and the relegated trio could take the league by storm, but it would be a shock if there's a gulf between them and the other clubs in the division, like there was in the 2023/24 campaign.

Upper mid-table clubs who missed out on the play-offs last season will be looking at this upcoming season as their chance to break into the top six and battle for promotion, and you'd have thought that this could be the perfect season for sides throughout the division to have a crack at winning promotion.

It's a long time until the season is due to get underway on the 10th August, and players will no doubt come and go throughout that time, but the 24/25 season is shaping up to be a very open campaign, and there's bound to be a few surprises along the way.