Will Leicester City be sh*t like Stoke? How the last ten biggest spenders in the Championship fared | OneFootball

2022/23 champions Burnley were last season’s biggest spenders, but as Nottm Forest proved in 2020/21, a huge outlay is not always a cheat code for success.

With James Maddison and Harvey Barnes set to return to the Premier League for £70m-plus (despite Tottemham’s derisory £50m initial joint-bid), Leicester City are the safe bet to be this season’s biggest spenders in the second tier. If so, the Foxes will hope to follow in the footsteps of Fulham and learn from the past mistakes of Stoke City.

All fees are taken from transfermarkt…

2022/23 – Burnley Spend:  £37m Signings: Lyle Foster, Ameen Al-Dakhil, Anass Zaroury, Manuel Benson, Darko Churlinov, Josh Cullen, Arijanet Muric, Scott Twine, Hjalmar Ekdal, Luke McNally, Vitinho, Samuel Bastien, Enock Agyei, CJ Egan-Riley, Denis Franchi, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Ian Maatsen, Jordan Beyer, Halil Dervisoglu, Nathan Tella and Michael Obafemi. Most expensive signing: Lyle Foster (£9.5m, KVC Westerlo) Final position: 1st

Burnley’s expenditure does not tell the whole story as they actually made a £28m profit last season thanks to the big-money sales of Nathan Collins, Maxwel Cornet, Dwight McNeil and Nick Pope. They spent fees on 13 players in 2022/23 and they picked out some gems – including Lyle Foster (£9.5m), Manuel Benson (£3.5m) and Josh Cullen (£2.5m) – to earn promotion straight back to the Premier League in style.

2021/22 – Fulham Spend: £19m Signings: Harry Wilson, Rodrigo Muniz, Nathaniel Chalobah, Paulo Gazzaniga, Domingos Quina and Neco Williams. Most expensive signing: Harry Wilson (£12m, Liverpool) Final position: 1st

Marco Silva inherited a squad already pretty well-equipped for life in the Championship when he succeeded Scott Parker. £12m of their spend went on signing ex-Liverpool man Harry Wilson and his goal threat – along with the prolific Aleksandar Mitrovic – guided Fulham to promotion.

2020/21 – Nottingham Forest Spend: £13m Signings: Harry Arter, Loïc Mbe Soh, Scott McKenna, Nikolas Ioannou, Fouad Bachirou, Jack Colback, Tyler Blackett, Lyle Taylor, Miguel Angel Guerrero, Glenn Murray, Cafu, Cyrus Christie, James Garner, Filip Krovinovic, Anthony Knockaert, Luke Freeman and Abdoulaye Diallo. Most expensive signing: Harry Arter (£4.7m, AFC Bournemouth) Final position: 17th

Nottm Forest wasted the £13.5m they earned from selling Matty Cash to Aston Villa on a lot of sh*t. They have come a long way over the past three years and that’s largely thanks to the influence of Steve Cooper. Back in 2020/21, they flirted with relegation (ultimately staying up with 52 points) and made the foolish decision to spend around £9m on Harry Arter and Loic Mbe Soh combined. Together, they only played 28 times for Forest before leaving.

2019/20 – Fulham Spend: £31.7m Signings: Ivan Cavaleiro, Bobby De Cordova-Reid, Michael Hector, Anthony Knockaert, Josh Onomah, Jordan Archer, Harry Arter, Terence Kongolo and Harrison Reed. Most expensive signing: Ivan Cavaleiro (£9.5m, Wolves) Final position: 4th (beat Brentford in play-off final)

Bristol City, Brentford and Fulham all spent over £25m on signings during the 19/20 campaign. While the Robins languished down in 12th, the two London sides faced off in the Championship play-off final. The richest game in football was not as glamorous behind closed doors, but two daft goals from Joe Bryan sent the Cottagers back to the Premier League.

2018/19 – Stoke City Spend: £54m Signings: Benik Afobe, Tom Ince, Sam Vokes, Ryan Woods, Peter Etebo, Sam Clucas, James McClean, Danny Batth, Adam Federici, Cuco Martina and Ashley Williams. : Benik Afobe (£11.5m, Wolves) Final position: 16th

I mean, f*ck. What were Stoke thinking here?! They surpassed expectations to remain in the Premier League for 10 years. But since their relegation in 2018, they have been a shambles and their downward trajectory began on the transfer front that summer. Loanee Benik Afobe lost his goalscoring touch after making his move permanent, while £18m trio Ryan Woods, Peter Etebo and Sam Clucas were average at best.

2017/18 – Middlesbrough Spend: £48m Signings: Britt Assombalonga, Martin Braithwaite, Ashley Fletcher, Jonathan Howson, Darren Randolph, Ryan Shotton, Cyrus Christie, Marvin Johnson, Lewis Wing, Muhamed Besic, George Miller, Martin Cranie, Luke Armstrong, Jack Harrison, Connor Roberts and Lewis Baker. Most expensive signings: Britt Assombalonga (£14.5m, Nottm Forest) Final position: 5th (lost to Aston Villa in play-off semi-finals)

£32m on three strikers who only scored 21 league goals combined? That’s crazy. This stat is also heavily held up by Britt Assombalonga’s 15-goal league campaign. Boro’s squad overhaul following relegation from the Premier League did not result in an immediate return to the top flight as they succumbed to Aston Villa over two legs in the semi-finals of the play-offs.

2016/17 – Aston Villa Spend: £73m Signings: Ross McCormack, Jonathan Kodija, Scott Hogan, James Chester, Aaron Tshibola, Pierluigi Gollini, Mile Jedinak, Tommy Elphick, Albert Adomah, Conor Hourihane, James Bree, Henri Lansbury, Ritchie De Laet, Birkir Bjarnason, Jacob Bedeau, Neil Taylor and Sam Johnstone. Most expensive signings: Ross McCormack (£12m, Fulham) Final position: 13th

Now it’s time for another team that f*cked it. The biggest of the biggest spenders in this article made a mess of their first season in the Championship. The not-so-dynamic duo of Roberto Di Matteo and Steve Bruce both failed to build a promotion-worthy squad out of their huge outlay as a miserable campaign for the Villans ended with them 18 points adrift of the top six in 13th.

2015/16 – Derby County Spend: £29m Signings: Bradley Johnson, Tom Ince, Jacob Butterfield, Jason Shackell, Andreas Weimann, Nick Blackman, Abdoul Camara, Marcus Olsson, Chris Baird, Darren Bent, Alex Pearce and Scott Carson. Most expensive signings: Bradley Johnson (£7m, Norwich City) Final position: 5th (lost to Hull City in play-off semi-finals)

The Rams are now on the rebuild after sleepwalking into a dire financial position which will have not been helped by their £25m-plus spend in 2015/16. Bradley Johnson (£7m), Tom Ince (£5.7m) and Andreas Weimann (£3m) were their more eye-catching additions. Derby could have done with getting into the top two as their wretched play-off record (one promotion in eight attempts) was worsened by their end-of-season heartache at the hands of those pesky Tigers.

2014/15 – Norwich City Spend: £17.5m Signings: Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe, Kyle Lafferty, Lewis Grabban, Ignasi Miquel, Cameron Jerome, Tony Andreu, Conor McGrandles, Louis Thompson, Gary O’Neil, Carlos Cuellar, Graham Dorrans and Jos Hooiveld. Most expensive signing: Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe (£4m, Club Brugge) Final position: 3rd (beat Middlesbrough in play-off final)

Yo-yo merchants Norwich City returned to the Championship in 2014 and Alex Neil masterminded their rise up the table during the run-in. Summer signing (and second-tier specialist) Cameron Jerome was their top scorer with 20 goals and while they narrowly missed out on automatic promotion, they deservedly got over the line via the play-offs.

2013/14 – QPR Spend: £10m Signings: Matt Phillips, Charlie Austin, Karl Henry, Coll Donaldson, Gary O’Neil, Danny Simpson, Richard Dunne, Modibo Maiga, Will Keane, Kevin Doyle, Ravel Morrison, Aaron Hughes, Tom Carroll, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Niko Kranjcar, Dellatorre, Yossi Benayoun, Oguchi Obyewu and Javier Chevanton. Most expensive signing: Matt Phillips (£5m, Blackpool) Final position: 4th (beat Derby County in play-off final)

The Hoops were shambolic in 12/13 as they were relegated from the Premier League after collecting just 25 points. Harry Redknapp remained in charge throughout the following season and the veteran boss benefitted from the club’s charitable owner – Tony Fernandes – as they pushed for promotion. This led to the play-off final against Derby. The Rams were largely the better side but luckily for QPR, they had Bobby Zamora and he produced a magical 90th-minute winner to send them back to the top flight.