Gary Neville sends Premier League warning to Burnley and Leeds United | OneFootball

The top two spots in the Championship were locked up by the Clarets and the Whites on Monday evening.

Gary Neville has issued a warning about the growing gap between the Premier League and the Championship.

The events of Easter Monday confirmed that former top flight sides Burnley and Leeds United had emerged from behind the boulder that is the Championship and been brought back to life in the Premier League.

The combination of Daniel Farke's team beating Stoke City 6-0 at Elland Road and a 2-1 win for Scott Parker's side over Sheffield United guaranteed that those two teams would occupy the top couple of spots in the Championship come the end of the season.

They both sit on 94 points with two games left to play, meaning that they both could bring up a ton before the close of play, but that won't have much meaning once they reach their next destination.

Last season's top two - Leicester City and Ipswich Town - are set to rejoin the Championship next season. The Foxes' survival hopes were ended by Liverpool on Sunday afternoon, while the Tractor Boys will need an obscene run of results to maintain their top flight status.

If Ipswich join Leicester and Southampton on the way down, it will be the second consecutive season in which all three promoted sides will be relegated. Burnley's 101-point winning superteam met the same demise last season, as did the Blades and Luton Town.

Gary Neville issues Premier League warning to promoted Championship sides

The worries over this building trend are slowly growing and are shared by many across the English footballing landscape, including Neville. The Sky Sports pundit and part-EFL owner expressed his concerns for sides that are now joining the Premier League, like Burnley and Leeds, over their slim chances of breaking the fast-setting mould of the top division.

"Look, we have to be concerned about (the relegation trend) because it's the fear that's sort of... There's no doubt it's becoming more fixed, the Premier League. That's a fact, you know, if you think about it," the Manchester United legend said on the Gary Neville Podcast, following the confirmation of Leicester's relegation.

"Not necessarily the three same teams going up and down, but it's becoming more and more difficult, the same five or six teams going up and down. It's becoming more difficult for teams to become permanent, if you like, or semi-permanent in the Premier League.

"There are some clubs who've done it successfully, but you always get the feeling that there are certain clubs at the start of the season who've got a chance of going down and some have no chance of going down.

"And I think that's becoming more fixed as a position. And that's something definitely to be concerned about, because one thing that we always talk about with the Premier League is the competitive nature of the entire league, and we can never lose that. The relegation and promotion is something that over in this country we sort of cherish, that anybody can come from sort of step six, seven, eight in the Pyramid all the way through to the Premier League.

"You know, Luton, I think, have gone from sort of National League into the Premier League in the last few years. That's a great story, but it's becoming more of an exception as the years go by. So it's something we need to keep an eye on, and the disparity between the finances of the Premier League and Championship are there for all to see.

"The pyramid, so the parachute payments put real pressure on clubs in the Championships to have to try and compete. So yeah, big challenges, and I think that there is something needed, but I don't think that's for today. I think that the authorities, there's a regulator coming in, there are negotiations ongoing between the Premier League and the EFL.

"Hopefully they do become concluded at some point in the future. Because I'd like to see it just balance out a little bit more than it currently is."

The Premier League - Championship disparity all revolves around money

Because the two sides who confirmed their return to the top flight on Monday have been in the Premier League within the last three seasons, they were scheduled to receive parachute payments from the league - payments which are supposed to cushion the fall from the first tier down to the second.

However, Burnley and Leeds won't receive the £35 million and £16 million that they were set to earn next season, respectively. Instead that money will be split among the other Premier League sides, who, last season, all received between £109 million and £176 million in central payments from the league.

The money that Championship clubs earn comes nowhere near that figure, so it really is no wonder that clubs coming up from the second tier struggle to live up to the standard of the Premier League.

It will also be no surprise to see Burnley, Leeds and whoever wins the play-offs struggling at the bottom end of the table next season, while Ipswich, Leicester and Southampton all challenge for promotion yet again, because they've had one year's worth of that £100+ million that none of their competition have had. And so the dangerous cycle will likely continue.