Nick Jansky
Well-Known Member
This is interesting, thanks. I’ve been saying for a while that some of our fans get far too hung up on the size of transfer fees we do or don’t pay. The market has changed, not least because players & their agents have become far more savvy about running their contracts down, but FFP is also playing a part.While we have definitely spent money on players who weren't good enough for the step up to the Premier League, a huge part of the problem when it comes to offloading them is that the bottom has fallen out of the transfer market in the Championship. Largely due to Covid and FFP, average Championship teams just aren't making as many multi-million pound transfers any more.
Look at the top 10 transfers from 18/19, when we were promoted, compared with 21/22, our first season back in the Championship:
18/19:
TOTAL: £74.3m
1João Carvalho Nottm Forest £11.8m 2Benik Afobe Stoke City £10.6m 3Tom Ince Stoke City £8.8m 4Ben Brereton Díaz Blackburn £6.5m 5Aden Flint Middlesbrough £6.3m 6Sam Vokes Stoke City £6.3m 7Patrick Bamford Leeds £6.2m 8George Saville Middlesbrough £6.1m 9Sam Johnstone West Brom £5.8m 10Ryan Woods Stoke City £5.7m
21/22:
TOTAL: £44.1m
1Harry Wilson Fulham £11.0m 2Daryl Dike West Brom £6.8m 3Rodrigo Muniz Fulham £6.3m 4Martín Payero Middlesbrough £5.3m 5Kieffer Moore Bournemouth £3.3m 6Riley McGree Middlesbrough £2.9m 7Ryan Christie Bournemouth £2.3m 8Sam Surridge Stoke City £2.3m 9Siriki Dembélé Bournemouth £2.1m 10Braian Ojeda Nottm Forest £1.8m
Essentially teams now rely much more heavily on free transfers and loans, which has contributed to us struggling to move on players for fees rather than waiting for their contracts to expire.