Perhaps the major goal of every English Football League Championship club is to keep their best players out of the hands of Premier League teams. However, it is also important to strengthen the squad ahead of the new season and we have seen plenty of transfer action involving clubs in the Championship over the years.
If you have ever dreamed about making a big money football transfer but that chance has gone, why not take advantage of JohnnyBet’s exclusive Casino.com promo code? This will give you a great chance of winning big money while enjoying the casino games.
In terms of money spent, at the time of writing the biggest transfer fee paid by a Championship club is the £16 million spent by Wolverhampton Wanderers for the services of Rúben Neves. This transfer was an important step in the process of winning promotion to the Premier League for Wolves and despite his young age, Neves proved to be a key player in central midfield during their promotion campaign. Neves joined the club from Porto, which was a big step for a young man and he left the opportunity of regular Champions League football to join a team in the English Championship.
Neves has gone on to be worth every penny and is now a regular member of the Wolves team in the Premier League, scoring some great goals along the way.
Next in the biggest Championship transfers we come to Britt Assombalonga. If Neves has gone from strength to strength since his big transfer to a Championship club, the same cannot be said for Assombalonga. Having moved from Nottingham Forest to Middlesbrough for a fee of £15.4 million, the striker has scored 25 goals for the club across two Championship seasons. There is nothing wrong with that tally but for the money paid, Assombalonga was expected to lead Middlesbrough back to the Premier League with his goals. There is still time for the striker to score 20 plus goals in a Championship season and take this team to the topflight.
A season after receiving the significant fee for Assombalonga, Nottingham Forest decided to splash the cash on attacking midfielder, João Carvalho. The Portuguese player moved to the City Ground from Benfica for £13.5 million and has certainly divided the fan base during his short time in Nottingham. A change of manager from Aitor Karanka to Martin O’Neill did not help Carvalho’s progress but under the guidance of the former he showed what he was capable of by creating and scoring goals. Carvalho has produced some excellent individual performances for Nottingham Forest but the fans will be hoping for more consistency going forward.
Interestingly, three out of the four biggest incoming transfers in the history of the Championship have involved players from Portugal. The third of these was the transfer of winger Hélder Costa from Benfica to Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2016/17. Commanding a fee of £13.5 million, Costa was one of the first names to arrive at Molineux following the takeover by Chinese investment group Fosun International. He played 109 times for Wolves, scoring 19 goals but has since headed out on loan to Leeds United before completing a permanent transfer to Elland Road.
Other players who have made big moves to Championship clubs include Ross McCormack, Benik Afobe, Jonathan Kodjia, Isaac Mbenza, and Andre Gray.
Image from: unsplash.com