Burnley
Blackburn Rovers
Coventry City
Derby County
Leeds United
Luton Town
Middlesbrough
Millwall
Norwich City
Portsmouth
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield United
QPR
Transfer deadline day was just under a week ago, and as we’ve had time to reflect on a hectic window for Championship clubs our resident transfer expert Graeme Bailey has named three clubs that did the best business.
Clubs will now be unable to sign new players (free agents aside) until January, but that doesn’t mean transfer talk has to stop. Quite the contrary, in fact, as we now have a few months to run the rule on all the new arrivals to the Championship.
While clubs like Sheffield Wednesday obviously wanted to sign more players and may live to regret their lack of activity, we also saw clubs like Derby County and Norwich City add an abundance of new recruits.
It doesn’t matter how much money Championship clubs spent, though. It’s all about quality, and we can now reveal the three clubs that did the best work in the transfer window.
Portsmouth won transfer deadline day but Birmingham City won the window
We’ve already shared our thoughts on the winners and losers of the transfer window, but now our Chief Football Correspondent Graeme Bailey has offered an insight into who he thought had the most successful deadline day.
He said: “I think there are a few clubs who did really well on deadline day, but I think Portsmouth had a really good final day of the window. Signing Conor Chaplin and the boy Franco Umeh-Chibueze from Palace. They did well there.”
Outside of the deals done on deadline day, Bailey shared his thoughts on the window as a whole, and two clubs really stood out for him.
He added: “In terms of the overall window, Middlesbrough had a very good window in the end, especially getting Strelec over the line. Obviously, it wasn’t just about keeping Hayden Hackney. Sverre Nypan has looked very good since he came in. They did very well to only really lose Finn Azaz.
“But it’s hard to look past Birmingham City. The quality that they brought to their squad; Demarai Gray, he’s Premier League quality, and Bright Osayi-Samuel rejected a lot of Premier League clubs. Tommy Doyle, too. They spent big and did a really good job.”
So, Birmingham City’s summer transfers were the most impressive. Now we wait and see if the new additions can steer them to glory by the end of the season.
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It was a huge transfer window for Championship clubs
By the end of the transfer window, Championship clubs had spent a whopping £320m between them. Ipswich Town and Southampton led the way with £51m and £48m worth of outlay respectively.
We are consistently seeing more and more money spent in the second tier, and bigger and better players arriving in the division, too.
However, it’s worth noting that Southampton in particular had a positive net spend this summer, thanks to the huge sales of Mateus Fernandes and Tyler Dibling.
It’s not just about spending lots of money. Championship clubs are getting smarter when it comes to selling players for big profits, too, which means we could and should see this kind of business continue in January and beyond.