BRISTOL City boss Steve Coppell believes next season's Championship will be one of the most open for many years.

Now that Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion have been promoted back to the Premier League, there is no clear title favourite.

Relegated clubs Portsmouth and Hull are crippled by debt and Coppell anticipates an "even playing field".

He said: "It's going to be very open this time. Ordinarily, a good Championship vintage involves two or three top teams dominating and winning promotion, but I don't think it will be like that next season.

"The teams that have come down have well-documented problems off the field and I don't see them having things all their own way.

"Leeds and Norwich have come up and are big clubs that will be expected to challenge quickly, but are not going to be able to do what West Brom and Newcastle did.

"All in all, it looks like being one of the most open campaigns for many years."

Coppell believes Blackpool's achievement of gaining promotion via the play-offs has given encouragement to a number of Championship clubs.

He said: "Blackpool have given so many teams hope. No-one expected them to go up – in fact, they were many people's favourites to be relegated at the start of the season. What they have done is nothing short of remarkable and they have shown that anything is possible in the Championship."

Coppell expects beaten play-off semi-finalists Nottingham Forest and Leicester to challenge once more and singles out Cardiff and Reading as other teams who could potentially do well – and he insisted City will be "in the mix" next season.

"All of those sides will be strong and it will be very interesting to see how the bookmakers place things when the fixtures come out," said the Liverpudlian.

"We are one of quite a few teams who will be in the mix.

"I spoke to many managers last season who said they won games they could easily have lost and vice versa. I'm sure that will carry on."

Coppell reckons the open nature of the Championship makes it especially exciting.

He said: "It's not Premier League football, but it's probably more exciting. It's not as technical, but it is more exciting to watch and more pleasing on the eye."