For pretty much every Premier League club, this transfer window is all about going big and bold, undertaking expensive overhauls and shopping only in stores where they serve you cups of Guatemalan slow-roasted coffee as you browse. Midfielders with impressive highlight reels are going for £70m. Perfectly decent but unexceptional defenders are the focus of bidding wars far exceeding a small nation’s GDP. Money is being sloshed about with such carefree abandon that it has ceased to be a commodity and is now merely a meaningless number on a balance sheet.
Which makes the top flight club’s snubbing of some outstanding talent in the Championship all the more frustrating, because not only would each of the below significantly improve most squads – from those expected to fight relegation right up to sides eyeing up a Europa League spot – they’ll also knock a few zeros off the fee too.
Tom Cairney (Fulham)
The 26-year-old Scottish international must be wondering what on earth he has to do to secure a dream move. Throughout last season he was one of the Championship’s most consistently brilliant performers, endlessly scheming in the Craven Cottage centre-circle and ultimately boasting stats that saw him prominent in every chart worth its salt. For assists, chances created, and passing accurately Cairney was right up there and though Newcastle reportedly failed with a recent £20m bid surely an improved offer for an attacking midfielder on the cusp of his peak is worth serious consideration?
Jacob Murphy (Norwich City)
He may sound like an Irish ghost sent to haunt Scrooge but the young winger is fast gaining a reputation for skinning full-backs at will and banging in the occasional worldy for good measure. Once again it seems Newcastle are the only club to have shown genuine interest so far though West Brom and Swansea are reportedly ‘keeping tabs’ on one of the brightest stars in the England U21 firmament.
Murphy may still be some distance away from being the finished article but has shown in his breakthrough season at Carrow Road that he possesses every trait to get there sooner rather than later.
Pontus Jansson (Leeds United)
Having just signed a three year deal for the Yorkshire giants following his highly successful loan spell from Torino it would take a hefty bid to lure the Swedish centre-back anywhere else this summer but in comparison to the eye-watering sums being bandied around elsewhere for commanding defenders it would still amount to peanuts.
The twin presence of Jansson at the back and Chris Wood up front helped an otherwise ordinary Leeds side over-achieve last term and knock on the play-off door, and it was notable how quickly the 26-year-old went from cult idol – due to his fully committed style of defending – to gaining sincere admiration for his unquestionable quality.
Tom Lawrence (Ipswich Town)
Okay so we’re muddying the waters a little here because the Welsh wonder is a Leicester City player but it’s in the Championship where Lawrence has carved out his name as an attacking force to be reckoned with first excelling at Blackburn and Cardiff before being a rare cause for excitement at Portman Road last term.
Nine assists and nine goals – including several goal of the season contenders – has seen his value bumped up but the Foxes are still keen to sell and for £10m or under he’d still represent a terrific steal.
Marc Roberts (Barnsley)
The Tykes have a fine pedigree in producing top class defenders and though their present captain isn’t home-grown like John Stones or Mason Holgate it is at Oakwell where the 26-year-old has developed into a superb stopper with the world at his feet.
It feels inevitable that Roberts will move onwards and upwards this summer which makes the speculation surrounding a sideways jump to Birmingham all the stranger. The lad is Premier League quality available at a relative snip and more fool half of the top flight if they eventually spend five times more on inferior fare.
Jonathan Kodjia (Aston Villa)
19 goals in his debut season in the Midlands was a hell of a way for the Ivory Coast international to prove his year at Bristol City was anything but a flash in the pan and though Villa will be banking on him to fire them to promotion in 2017/18 they will be powerless to prevent a sizable bid getting through from one of the big boys.
Having arrived last summer for an initial £11m it would arguably take double that to prise him away but such is the premium on goals and prolific finishing at the highest level anything under £25m is chicken feed for a forward guaranteed to reach double figures in any league.
