Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray claims the quality of the Championship is at an all-time high ahead of the coming season.
The Black Cats boss’ comments come in response to the shock relegations from last seasons’ Premier League.
Tony Mowbray’s Sunderland will be joined by Leeds United, Leicester City and Southampton, three sides who were well established in the Premier League.
It is no surprise that these three have been tipped as heavy favourites to make an instant return to England’s top division.
Leicester have spent big so far welcoming Premier League regulars Harry Winks and Conor Coady.
While Leeds and Southampton both boast impressive squads and are set to spend big to secure their promotion.
It was reported that Mowbray has been easing expectations on his Sunderland side, ahead of what he believes will be a ‘tough’ season.
Tony Mowbray on a potentially ‘tough’ season
Mowbray highlighted the recently promoted ‘big’ teams as the biggest threat in the league.
As reported by The Northern Echo, Mowbray said, “The season is going to be tough this year, with the teams that came down
“Leeds United, Southampton and Leicester are big teams. They’re not teams who went up last year and have come down this year and are used to the Championship, but they’re big teams.
“Leeds have been relegated after two full seasons in the division, Southampton have been up there a long time and Leicester won the Premier League in 2015.”
These strong sides entering the Championship will provide difficult competition for Sunderland, who would have been aiming to improve on their play-off semi-final finish last season.
However Mowbray is also talking about the sides who have been promoted to the Championship. With Ipswich spending a lot of money, evident as they are about to outbid Sunderland for striker Ellis Simms.
On Ipswich Mowbray said, they’re “a club I know really well who are very ambitious and have a big support”.
He added, “They’ll be a handful as well, and it’ll be a really interesting opening game of the season because they’ll come with all guns firing I’m sure.”