Ruud van Nistelrooy has just nine games left to save Leicester City's season and avoid a switch to the second division, but one pundit has said he fancies the Foxes' chances in the Championship.
Leicester are on a disastrous run of form. Losing 13 out of their last 14 games has left them in 19th and with a nine-point mountain to climb to try and clinch safety.
For a second year in a row, the move up to the Premier League has been too much for the newly promoted sides, with the three to have come up this season looking like they'll be heading back down again.
However a season in the second flight may help the club find their winning ways again. Lee Hendrie believes that will be the case for all the relegated Premier League sides as he believes they'll be right back in contention at the top of the table.
Leicester City's Dutch manager Ruud van Nistelrooy
Ruud van Nistelrooy has a mountain to climb to turn Leicester's fortunes around (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Speaking to Football League World the former Aston Villa midfielder said: "Will they be fighting for promotion next year? Yes, all three of them - I think so.
"With the way things have been, we have seen a bounce factor when clubs drop back into the Championship from the Premier League because most of these sides going up are the ones with higher budgets, better quality players, and bigger squads."
Although the Championship can be a brutal league for any club that underestimates the quality in the league. Clubs can often struggle to find their form again and quickly find themselves in a free fall heading for League One.
Lee Hendrie
Lee Hendrie thinks the Foxes' would be favourites to return to the Premier League (Image: PA)
That seems to be the fate of last year's Premier League side Luton Town who now sit in 23rd booking themselves a spot in League One and following in the footsteps of Sunderland's fall in 2017 and Wolves' double drop in 2012.
Although Hendrie believed that with the financial backing and parachute payments the club is due to receive, the Foxes' won't struggle in picking up points and will be one of the favourites to head straight back up.
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