Bristol City urged to follow Brighton and Brentford route as Premier League prediction is made | OneFootball

Football League World's Robins Fan Pundit talks through his team's chances of making the top flight by 2030.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

Bristol City are one of just five current Championship clubs to have not played in the Premier League since the old First Division was reformatted into the top flight that we know today.

This season looks to be one of the Robins' greatest opportunities to win promotion to the promised land, with the fight for the play-off places looking as though it will go all the way until the final day of the campaign.

Inconsistency has been Liam Manning's side's greatest issue in 2024/25, and if they can cut that out in the final months of the season, they have a strong chance of finishing in the top six and having a chance of ending their barren run without top flight football.

Bristol City's young team is slowly starting to mature into a very credible threat in the Championship, and while there will be a desire to see Premier League football at Ashton Gate after this summer, they are a side that look to be building up to be something impressive.

Verdict made on Bristol City's chances of winning promotion to the Premier League by 2030

The Robins have not finished in the play-offs in the second tier since the 2007/08 season, with Gary Johnson's side making it to the final at Wembley after beating Crystal Palace over two legs. However, Dean Windass scored an outstanding volley for Hull City to take the Tigers to the Premier League.

Since then, the club have spent two years in League One, and have not finished higher than eighth in the Championship.

But there is hope that in the coming years the team can finally make their way back to the top flight for the first time since 1980.

Football League World asked their Bristol City Fan Pundit, Tom Rawle, if he believes the Robins will play in the Premier League by 2030.

He told FLW: "Yes, but I always keep saying this. If somebody asked me this probably five years ago in 2020, would Bristol City be in the Premier League by 2025? I would have said yes.

"But honestly, now with the coach that we do have in Liam Manning, it probably feels a lot closer than it has done for me since we were under Lee Johnson. I felt like that was probably the best chance we did have at getting into the Premier League, and it was certainly the best position we've been in as a club since getting to the play-off final in 2008.

"But, certainly at the moment, it feels like we're going in an upward direction, we're playing good stuff, we've got a progressive coach, we're knocking on the door of the play-offs with relatively not as good a side as teams around us, to be honest. Fingers crossed, we're only going to improve that."

Tom continued: "You look at other clubs like Middlesbrough doing a lot of business in general and us not doing anything in the long run. I feel like that's going to put us in a good place for the summer because we'll probably be able to spend a little bit more money then and strengthen the team and hopefully have a good go at it next season if we don't achieve the goal of promotion this season.

"So certainly, next season I think we're going to be the team to watch then, but by the year 2030, I'd expect us to be in the Premier League and then once we get in the Premier League, it's about staying in the Premier League and being a sustainable club.

"We need to try and emulate what Brighton and Brentford did, something like that, but at the moment we should be just concentrating on the next Championship game."

Bristol City have to take the next step soon

It has been really frustrating for Bristol City supporters in recent years that the team have not been able to push for the Premier League, despite maintaining their Championship status since the 2015/16 season.

The Robins have found it difficult to remain consistent when they get close to the play-offs, and they have dropped down the league table at late stages on multiple occasions.

Having confidence is extremely important to ensuring that this does not happen again, but they also need a striker who can put the ball in the back of the net more often than their current options.

Finding a forward with real pedigree is Manning's main task in the summer transfer window, especially with Nahki Wells turning 35 at the start of June. If not, Bristol City may find it difficult to take that next step and become a real contender for promotion if they miss out this year.