Tuesday 31 May 2016 17:08, UK
Peter Taylor believes keeping players together is the key for relegated teams Aston Villa, Norwich City and Newcastle United if they are to bounce back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
Burnley won the Sky Bet Championship this season - and secured automatic promotion alongside Middlesbrough - as they made an immediate return to the top flight, while Hull City did the same after seeing off Sheffield Wednesday in the play-off final at Wembley.
And Taylor reckons the Magpies, Villa and the Canaries should adopt the same policy as the Tigers as they contemplate next season in the second tier of English football.
"I think any manager that gets relegated out of the Premier League, the first thing he thinks of is will he lose his most important players," Taylor told Sky Sports News.
"The more you can keep hold of your squad, the stronger it's going to be, the better chance you'll have of getting back into the Premier League, because the Championship, it's such a tough league.
"You've got to have your best players. To be fair to Hull, they kept their players, so the owner deserves a lot of credit for that and they've got a very experienced manager [in Steve Bruce]."
Former Fulham manager Kit Symons has first-hand experience of the Clarets' successful season, noting the way they went about their business which helped them achieve promotion.
He said: "In my second-last game, we narrowly lost up at Turf Moor, we put in a decent performance. But it's the way they went under the radar for so long really, they just went about their business at the right time. They were solid, very organised. We spoke about Joey Barton - Andre Gray and Sam Vokes were excellent for them as well."
The Championship will prove a tough challenge to negotiate once again next season and Symons expects third-placed Brighton, who missed out in the play-offs, and Sheffield Wednesday, who lost to Hull in the play-off final, to both be in the promotion mix once again.
He said: "I think probably Sheffield Wednesday and Brighton were two of the surprise packages in the Championship this season. Both teams did exceptionally well.
"I bumped into a couple of the Sheffield Wednesday players at the Cheltenham festival, they were waxing lyrical about the team camaraderie within the group and it is so vital to having a successful Championship season."
Wigan, Burton Albion and Barnsley won promotion to the Championship from League 1, but Taylor feels that Burton may struggle to stay in the division.
"It's going to be tough," he said. "It's going to be like Yeovil in that division. But the club has done marvellous and the owner has done marvellous. Every appointment he seems to make managerial-wise seems to be a success. Gary Rowett, Nigel Clough first of all, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, everybody has done well.".
Having spoken to Clough, Symons revealed the Brewers manager is up for the new challenge.
"I spoke to Nigel at the LMA dinner, he was obviously delighted," said Symons.
"He was there with his owner, delighted to have gained promotion, and he realises how tough it's all going to be. But he's fully focussed on the job in hand."
