Whoever said there is no value to be found in the transfer market these days? Our Championship ‘Signing of the Season’ XI cost their respective clubs just £2 million put together.
What’s more, nine of the 11 arrived either on loan on on a free transfer, including the league’s finest goalkeeper, a prolific central midfielder and an international winger with 21 assists to his name.
Lee Nicholls – Huddersfield Town, free
Huddersfield have scored just twice more than 17th-place Bristol City this term. Only one of Carlos Corberan’s players – Danny Ward – has more than six league goals. It’s fair to say The Terriers are far from prolific.
But if you’re not going to score a bucketload at one end, make sure you keep them out at the other. And in Lee Nicholls, Huddersfield have arguably the most reliable shot-stopper in the whole of the Championship standing tall between the sticks.
The former MK Dons glovesman – Huddersfield’s 2022 Player of the Year – has 18 clean sheets in 43 games.
Djed Spence – Nottingham Forest, loan
A word of praise for Cody Drameh, the Leeds United loanee named Cardiff City’s Player of the Year despite spending only half the season in South Wales. But not even he could stop Spence from swaggering into our starting XI.
The rampaging right-back is surely going to be playing Premier League football next season, even if Nottingham Forest fall short in the play-offs.
Tottenham Hotspur have already had two bids rejected for the Middlesbrough-owned Spence.
Matty Pearson – Huddersfield Town, free
Huddersfield team-mates Tom Lees and Levi Colwill came close, but Pearson gets the nod. Snapped up on a free from top-six rivals Luton Town, the late-blooming 28-year-old has provided a stable platform for an unexpected promotion charge in West Yorkshire.
Corberan and co will be praying that Pearson returns from a knee injury in time for a potential trip to Wembley.
Steve Cook – Nottingham Forest, free
The phrase ‘old-school’ often feels like a criticism in modern football. But it shouldn’t, in the case of Steve Cook at least. The January signing from Bournemouth battled on despite a head injury in last week’s heat-breaking defeat to his old employers and his experience could prove invaluable as Steve Cooper’s youthful side look to bounce back from that disappointment in the play-offs.
Forest have lost two of the 14 league games Cook has played in since arriving at the City Ground, keeping eight clean sheets.
Scott Malone – Millwall, free
Lions boss Gary Rowett believes that, if Malone’s contract at Derby County hadn’t expired, it would have taken a fee in the region of £1 million to bring the swashbuckling left-back to The Den.
Malone, who impressed on loan at Millwall last term, has three goals and five assists since completing his permanent switch.
Harry Wilson – Fulham, loan
They say no signing is a guarantee of success. But a second-tier club bringing in Harry Wilson without paying a penny in transfer fees? That is as close to a ‘Championship cheat code’ as you’re ever going to get.
Blessed with a wand of a left foot, the Welsh wizard pulls more rabbits out of hats than Penn and Teller combined, contributing 11 goals and a staggering 21 assists to Fulham’s title-winning campaign – a remarkable tally that earns Wilson a place in our side ahead of Bournemouth’s Ryan Christie.
Understandably, Fulham jumped at the chance to secure Wilson’s signature on a full-time basis, even at a hefty £12 million.
James Garner – Nottingham Forest, loan
Luton’s Allan Campbell and Swansea City’s Flynn Downes can probably consider themselves to be a little unfortunate but Garner’s role in Nottingham Forest’s remarkable run of form since the turn of the year should not be underestimated.
Would anybody be surprised to see the England U21 international – an excellent passer of the ball and a real threat from dead balls – start for parent club Manchester United under Erik Ten Hag next season?
Mason Gibbs-White – Sheffield United, loan
With Wolves struggling for cutting edge and creativity in the final third, the decision to farm Gibbs-White on loan to Sheffield United last summer certainly feels like an odd one with the benefit of hindsight.
Labelled ‘outstanding’ by Barnsley boss Poya Asbaghi after another dazzling performance recently, no central midfielder in the league has scored more than ‘MGW’s 11.
Josh Bowler – Blackpool, free
Everton invested up to £4 million to bring Bowler to Goodison Park from Queens Park Rangers when he was just 18 years of age. It’s taken some time but, at 23, one of the Championship’s most exhilarating attackers is finally starting to justify those early expectations.
Even the most optimistic, glass-half-full members of the Blackpool fanbase will know, deep down, that keeping Bowler at Bloomfield Road may be easier said than done.
Viktor Gyokeres – Coventry City, £1m
One of only two players in this team who cost, well, something, Gyokeres is comfortably justifying a price-tag that raised eyebrows then but looks a bargain now. The Sweden international powerhouse had Coventry fans dreaming of the play-offs en route to a career-best 17 goals.
Former employers Brighton may soon be wishing they could turn back the clock as Gyokeres goes from strength to strength.
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Joel Piroe – Swansea City, £1m
Swansea manager Russell Martin has made sure to remind potential suitors that Piroe will not be going anywhere on the cheap this summer. And make no mistake, suitors will not be in short supply with Leicester City scouting the former PSV youngster on at least four occasions this term.
Piroe is not only a great goalscorer but a scorer of great goals. His laser-like precision from anywhere in the final third makes the Dutchman – scorer of 22 goals in 40 starts – one of the EFL’s most feared marksmen.
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