TONY MOWBRAY claims the standard of the teams coming into the Championship means it will be harder than ever to win promotion to the top-flight this season.

Leeds United, Leicester City and Southampton are preparing for life in the second tier following their relegation last season, and it is hardly a surprise that all three are being strongly tipped to make an instant return to the Premier League.

Leicester have spent around £17m in the last fortnight on Conor Coady and Harry Winks, Leeds are preparing to splash the cash under new boss Daniel Farke and even if Southampton sell Romeo Lavia and James Ward-Prowse, they could still boast the likes of Kyle Walker-Peters, Stuart Armstrong and Che Adams in their starting line-up.

“The season is going to be tough this year, with the teams that came down,” said Mowbray. “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.”

At the other end of the scale, Ipswich Town are being equally ambitious as they return to the Championship from League One. The Portman Road club are expected to be one of the biggest spenders in the second tier, with the fact they are set to outbid Sunderland for Everton striker Ellis Simms underlining their willingness to invest significantly this summer.

“There’s big teams coming down, and then you’ve got Ipswich spending money, a club I know really well who are very ambitious and have a big support,” continued Mowbray, in an interview with Sunderland’s official media channels. “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.

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“You’ve also got Plymouth, that’s the other end of the world for us to get there, and historically, having gone to Plymouth in the past, it’s always been a tough place because they’ve got a cauldron of a stadium. I think the league is going to be tough.”

Sunderland are one of a batch of teams who will be looking to improve on their finishing position in the Championship last season, and while Mowbray respects the clubs who finished in and around the Black Cats in the table last term, he sees no reason why his side should not be targeting promotion.

“If you add into those teams I’ve already mentioned your likes of West Brom, Middlesbrough, Watford and Norwich then the league looks tough on paper,” he said. “But then it looked tough last year and we did pretty well, so we will be really positive with the way we approach it.

“Hopefully, there’ll be a little bit more with recruitment over the next couple of weeks, but we’re looking forward to the challenge of it. Hopefully, the supporters are looking forward to us giving everything we’ve got in every game and seeing where that takes us.”