Dejphon Chansiri’s top six hopes for Sheffield Wednesday – what are the chances?

The Owls secured promotion into the second tier via the play-offs in the season just gone, Darren Moore guiding them to a Wembley victory in May that secured their departure from League One at the second time of trying.

Since then, though, Moore has left his role at Hillsborough, and Chansiri’s search for the next manager has got underway ahead of the players’ return for preseason at the end of June – who will take over is unclear, but what is clear is the chairman’s hopes for their 2023/24 league finish.

“For me, the minimum should be play-offs,” he said. “Anyone can lose or win in the play-offs, it's 50-50. If we don't try, then what's the point in staying in the Championship?”

Reaching the second tier play-offs directly after promotion is no easy feat, though, and while Sunderland may have managed to pull it off last season, a top six Championship finish immediately after moving up from League One has only been achieved by 10 teams since the start of the millennium, and you have to go back to 1998/99 to find the last team to have gain promotion via the play-offs in that manner.

Before the Black Cats it was Brentford’s 2014/15 side that were the last to claim a top six place directly after a League One promotion, however they fell in the play-offs before they could reach the Premier League. Leicester City (2010), Bristol City (2008), Reading (2003), Millwall (2002) and Preston North End (2001) all suffered the same fate, with Watford’s class of 1999 the last team to achieve back-to-back promotions in that way.

There are, however, a handful of examples of teams that have secured automatic promotion out of the Championship at the first time of asking in the same timeframe, with Southampton in 2011/12 the most recent club to do so, with Norwich City doing so the season before and Manchester City achieving it in the 1999/2000 season.

MORE: When Wednesday’s players will return as manager hunt continues