Mind the gap to top flight as it's growing each year

IT'S GETTING TOUGHER IN SECOND TIER AS IPSWICH, LEICESTER AND SOUTHAMPTON COME DOWN WITH £50M TO HELP CUSHION THE BLOW

- By LEIGH CURTIS

NOW that Derby County have survived their first season back in the Championship, the decision-makers at Pride Park Stadium will spend this summer devising a fresh plan of attack for what looks to be an even more competitive division.

The next pitstop in David Clowes' long-term plan would be a comfortable mid-table position before the Rams can take another stride towards their ultimate aim of challenging for a place in the Premier League.

But with money-laden Birmingham City back in the Championship and an equally big-spending Wrexham making their presence felt in the transfer market, the level of competition is going to be extremely fierce.

While every team in the second tier harbours ambitions of dining at English football's top table before a ball is even kicked, it is hard to shake the fear, however, that the Premier League is now becoming a closed shop.

Three clubs in the Championship next season will collect parachute payments, with Ipswich Town, Leicester City and Southampton pocketing nearly £50m to cushion the financial blow of being relegated from the top flight and back into a league operating in a different world of budgets.

There will be no second-year payments due to Burnley because they are already back in the big time, Sheffield United are hoping to follow suit in the play-offs and Luton Town will cash their cheque in League One because they fell straight through.

There will be no third-year payments in 2025-26 because Leicester, Southampton and Leeds United have all since won promotion and reset their calculations.

This comes as pundits have become increasingly concerned about promoted clubs' struggles to compete in the Premier League but still being streets ahead of the Championship, in a large part due to financial rules and hugely contrasting revenues.