Ross Stewart drops clear Southampton FC promotion prediction | OneFootball

The Saints were officially relegated from the Premier League more than three weeks ago.

Southampton striker Ross Stewart is confident that the club will get back to the Premier League at the first time of asking next season.

Stewart's season, much like Southampton's, has been a frustrating one. Injuries have once again limited his ability to make an impact on the pitch, in the same way that the Saints have failed to make much of a mark on the league that they are set to not play in next time around.

They will be back in the second tier next season, where both them and their Scottish striker last found major success. But will they be able to replicate that? There is faith from the 28-year-old that his side will be competing for the top spots.

Ross Stewart's confident Southampton return prediction

Stewart has fully backed his teammates and the ability that they possess, and believes that they don't need to make many tweaks next season in order to be one of the better sides in the Championship.

One change that the Saints will make is in the dugout. They are yet to confirm who will replace Ivan Juric after he was sacked towards the start of the month. Most recently, Eric Ramsay, a former coach for Chelsea and Manchester United and the current head coach of Minnesota United, has been named as a potential option by talkSPORT.

"Yes," was the simple answer that Stewart gave when asked if Southampton can get back to the top flight of English football at the first time of asking next season, as per the Daily Echo.

He continued: "I don't think a lot has got to change. I think winning a few games will build confidence. I think we're probably a team that lacks a bit of confidence just through results, which is natural, but we've got a really good group in there.

"We've got a lot of talented, quality players that hopefully we can keep hold of in the summer. We've got a big squad, so whoever's in charge is going to have a lot to pick from.

"I don't think there's anything to change too much. I think we've got a good breed of experience. Like I said, we've got a lot of quality.

"We've just got to get ourselves (together) and have a good pre-season, get the team bonded, try to start well and get confidence bred — and we'll be fine."

Southampton will probably be one of the best 25/26 Championship sides

It may be a case of Groundhog Day at the top of the Championship next season, with all three promoted sides from the 2023/24 campaign likely to be near the top of the next one.

Even though Southampton could lose a lot of good players this summer, like Tyler Dibling, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Aaron Ramsdale and Kyle Walker-Peters, who are all of keen interest to West Ham United, as per talkSPORT, the players they'd have left over will still make them a very competitive side.