Swansea and Cardiff have their eyes on the Premier League prize

John Hartson has warned that promotion-chasing Cardiff and Swansea are likely to struggle if their Premier League dream comes true.

Swansea-born former Wales striker Hartson says financial constraints could turn those dreams into a nightmare on the field.

He told Sport Wales: "I think it will be extremely difficult.

"In the past teams that have been promoted from the Championship... history tells you they have struggled."

Cardiff and Swansea are in the play-off mix that will see one of the four teams placed third to sixth in the Championship reach the Premier League.

But Hartson warned: "Financially they haven't got the £30m or £40m to spend even though they'll be getting good revenue from Sky and the TV money and the Premier League.

"It will be difficult for both clubs. Obviously only one club will go up now, both clubs won't go up and obviously we hope one will.

606: DEBATE Give your thoughts on John Hartson's views

"They just don't have the financial clout and they have to rely on their players to perform fantastically well.

"It does happen. Teams have done it, but I think if you look this season you can look at Burnley, how much they've struggled after a fantastic start.

"In the past there are teams who have come up and stayed up and capitalised on it.

"But even teams like West Brom who have had a great squad over the years - they came up under Tony Mowbray fantastically, they won the [Championship] league at a canter, they came down the next season in the Premier League. They couldn't cope."

Hartson also believes there is more pressure on the Bluebirds to gain promotion than their Welsh rivals, simply because of Cardiff's financial troubles.

"It's been well documented that Cardiff have been struggling financially," said Hartson.

"I don't know why that is because they have big crowds. I think it must be because players are obviously earning big, big money.

They [Swansea] haven't gone a Chopra that would cost them £3m or £4m and £15,000 a week, they haven't got one of them John Hartson

"I think the onus is on Cardiff to really go up more than Swansea even because they need the financial backing that the Premier League will give them."

Hartson says Swansea's situation is different, saying the club's backers have not followed Cardiff's example and bought £5m-rated players such as Michael Chopra:

"There's clarity between the [Swansea] players and what they earn," said Hartson.

"I'm not too sure if they would go and break the bank and bring in a certain player just to please the crowd because they haven't done it in the Championship.

"They haven't gone a Chopra that would cost them £3m or £4m and £15,000 a week, they haven't got one of them.

"They've had to work with what they've got and they work to a system, they play that 4-5-1 system and they get balls in the box.

"They've got four or five decent strikers like [Shefki] Kuqi, [Craig] Beattie, and [Lee] Trundle.

"So I think Swansea will rely heavily on doing things the way they've always done things while as I think Cardiff - I don't know if it's Dave's [Jones] philosophy to buy and to try and bring bigger name players in - but I just feel Swansea will carry on the way they're going."

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