Championship transfers: the six smartest deals so far
Taking a look at the standout signings from the opening weeks of the window
After a slow start, the Championship transfer window is starting to speed up and plenty of teams are making impressive moves. While these aren’t necessarily the six best players to have made moves this summer, all represent good value for the buying clubs and are clear upgrades and/or sensible replacements in their respective positions.
Bright Osayi-Samuel (Fenerbahce to Birmingham City - Free)
Birmingham City arrived in the Championship with lofty expectations, buoyed by chairman Tom Wagner’s bullish rhetoric about the club’s ambitions and financial power. Many outsiders assumed that the bulk of Blues’ business would focus in goal and across the front four, so the marquee signing of right-back Bright Osayi-Samuel signalled the intention to make upgrades all over the pitch.
This move makes a lot of sense. Chris Davies usually instructs his right-winger to roam centrally, which puts physical demands on the right-back, who is expected to cover lots of ground. Last year’s first choice Ethan Laird isn’t the most durable, having never previously started more 30 league games in a season. Taylor Gardner-Hickman was an able deputy in League One, but Osayi-Samuel’s athleticism makes him more suited to the tests that Birmingham will face at both ends of the pitch, now they are operating at a higher level.
The ex-Fenerbahce man averaged five recoveries per 90 in the Turkish Super Lig last season and is surprisingly good in defensive duels for a player who started his career as a winger. Going forward, Osayi-Samuel offers Davies some flexibility with his willingness to cut inside, a nice attribute given the head coach’s desire to control possession.
This is a smart transfer financially too. Birmingham’s revenues will dwarf most outside the Premier League, but in the stricter financial climate of the Championship, adding some astute free transfers will free up more of the budget to throw at the big-money arrivals Blues fans are likely to see later in the window.
Ryan Hardie (Plymouth Argyle to Wrexham - £700,000)
To some, this transfer window may look like business as usual for Wrexham. After back-to-back-to-back promotions, that the Red Dragons are entering a new division for a third consecutive summer. However, this is the first time they arrive at a higher level with a squad that needs some work to stay competitive. Some eye-catching early links suggested an intention to compete for signings with the big boys, but there was an even greater need to make immediate upgrades rather than risk missing out by chasing overly-ambitious targets. Ryan Hardie fits the mould and £700,000 represents a bargain for a proven Championship forward still in his prime.
The 28-year-old often fed off scraps at Argyle and worked hard to create chances for himself, particularly during the second half of the season when head coach Miron Muslic adopted a more pragmatic, backs-to-the-wall approach. This should translate well to a Wrexham team that is unlikely to see much of the ball next season and will need to rely on individuals to carry them up the pitch more than most.
Hardie’s pace should be a useful weapon for Phil Parkinson’s 3-5-2, running in behind opposition defences to latch onto flick-ons from Sam Smith. He isn’t the usual physical build of a Wrexham striker but his intelligent near-post runs will give the Red Dragons the option to add more variety to their crossing next season, allowing them to build on their strength out wide while becoming less reliant on high balls into the box. All the signs point to Hardie playing a big part in phase one of Wrexham’s Championship journey,
Cameron Burgess (Ipswich Town to Swansea City - Free)
When Cameron Burgess was approaching the end of his Ipswich Town contract, he was linked with European giants Valencia and a Girona side fresh from participating in the Champions League. For Swansea City to bring him in without any prior media whispers was a coup that sent a strong statement about the ambitions in SA1.
The 29-year-old ticks a lot of boxes for Alan Sheehan’s side. No team won fewer aerial duels in the Championship last season and with the imposing Harry Darling departing for Norwich, addressing this weakness leapt to the top of the Swans’ list of priorities. Burgess won four aerial duels per 90 during Ipswich’s promotion campaign of 2023-24, a total bettered by only six other players in the division. He is comfortable on the ball too, with his ability to pick a pass into the channels another attribute of Darling’s that has been adequately replaced.
Burgess isn’t the quickest but positions himself intelligently to avoid getting beaten for pace. He also played in an Ipswich side where left-back Leif Davis was given a lot of creative freedom, so adapting to a Swansea system where both full-backs position themselves high up the pitch shouldn’t be an issue.
His release from Ipswich shouldn’t be seen as a negative either. The Tractor Boys tried to keep him in the building but with £15m left-footed centre-back Jacob Greaves also on the books, they couldn’t give the Australian international the assurances over game time that he sought in a World Cup year. Ipswich’s loss is a gain for Swansea, as they pick up a proven defender from a promotion favourite without spending a penny.
Kaine Kesler-Hayden (Aston Villa to Coventry City - £3.5m)
Coventry City are one of the smartest operators in the transfer market, consistently striking a nice balance between generating profit from player sales and investing to improve performances on the pitch. With rumours swirling about the future of nippy full-back Milan Van Ewijk, the Sky Blues moved quickly to bring in Kaine Kesler-Hayden from Aston Villa, taking advantage of their neighbours’ PSR concerns to grab a bargain. The 22-year-old won Preston’s player of the year award, as a bright light in an otherwise disappointing campaign. Impressively, he ranked in the top 4% for chance creation among Championship full-backs in a North End team that didn’t offer much going forward.
Kesler-Hayden is an excellent fit for Frank Lampard’s system because his pace will be useful in overloading the flanks to facilitate Coventry’s cross-heavy approach. While his delivery needs work, he is a more effective dribbler than Van Ewijk, who often struggles to take on his man in the final third. ‘KKH’ has some nice defensive qualities too; he completed a league-high 228 recoveries in 2024-25 and should thrive in the Sky Blues’ high line, compensating for centre-backs Bobby Thomas and Luis Binks’ lack of mobility.
Kesler-Hayden was a wanted man before he put pen to paper at the CBS, with Middlesbrough and others chasing his signature. That he eventually settled on a move to the Midlands was yet another endorsement of the direction of travel at Coventry, a club that has knocked on the Premier League door and may do the same again next time.
Damion Downs (FC Koln to Southampton - £7m)
Physicality was the key word of Southampton’s Premier League post-mortem. Former boss Russell Martin told Sky Sports that the size and strength of top flight opposition took him by surprise and the noises coming from Saints’ recruitment team imply that correcting this deficiency is a priority in the summer transfer window. Nowhere else was this more evident than up front, where only the one-dimensional Paul Onuachu offered any sort of physical presence.
Enter Damion Downs. 10 goals from 28 games during Koln’s 2.Bundesliga title winning campaign was a decent return in a league only marginally weaker than the Championship. At 21, he is only likely to improve his strike rate further, but it is his what he has to offer outside the box that makes him stand out.
Downs doesn’t compete as well in the air as he possibly should, yet he is devastatingly effective when dropping deep, using his body to hold off opposition defenders, before laying the ball off to team mates. This skillset should make the US international a nice foil to Adam Armstrong, who thrived in Saints’ promotion campaign with Che Adams playing a similar role alongside him. The only potential question mark over Downs is his readiness to start regularly, but Saints’ variety of options in attack should ease the pressure on him. From the club’s perspective, it is worth the gamble too; the emergence of an established top 17 in the Premier League means that for top Championship clubs hoping to break in, taking risks on high-ceiling youngsters with scalable physical qualities is the way forward.
Tanto Olaofe (Stockport County to Charlton Athletic - £1.5m)
Tanto Olaofe is in the unique position of moving up a division this summer, despite signing for a club that just finished below his previous employers. 3rd-placed Stockport County crashed out of the play-offs at the semi-final stage, paving the way for Charlton Athletic to follow up their 4th-placed finish with promotion at Wembley. Now the Addicks have swooped to take one of the Hatters’ key players.
Olaofe, who has plundered 28 goals across the previous two campaigns, is a unique profile of forward; neither a typical winger, nor an out-an-out number nine. For Stockport, he wasn’t involved much in build-up, ranking in the bottom 20% for touches among League One strikers, despite playing in a possession-heavy side. Instead, Olaofe is at his best when stationed out wide and stretching the pitch, a style not dissimilar to Coventry City’s Haji Wright. This makes him an obvious fit for a direct Charlton side that will have to overcome a talent disadvantage against most opponents and will often rely on an out-ball to start attacks.
Olaofe isn’t the most elegant of runners and can at times frustrate with his finishing, but his work rate, ball-striking and ability to create chances for himself really stand out. In an era when finding forwards in the domestic market is particularly difficult for Championship clubs, the £1.5m fee could prove a steal before too long.
What do you think are the best deals so far?
The Championship is bound to be even more interesting this season with Birmingham and Wrexham bound to be up there along with the relegated sides. Will look forward to see how Danny Ward does at Wrexham. Move to Leicester was a wrong one and really killed his career's momentum. There's still a very good goalkeeper there, though.