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THE Premier League is globally acknowledged to be the best club competition in the world.
The Championship is the finest of the second tiers. No doubt about that.
The EFL has a smaller contribution to the Premier League, in terms of player transfers, than most people think[/caption]
However, there are two peculiarities.
Firstly, the top six in both are quite easy to predict and, secondly, a surprisingly small number of players make the move from second tier to first.
In this summer window about 15 players (plus a few free transfers) will be sold upwards. In a private challenge to this low figure, Ipswich Town followed promotion by acquiring nearly half this number — seven in fact — for about £70million.
The Tractor Boys are ploughing a furrow many clubs might follow.
Overall, the Championship clubs did £300m in player sales business.
Leeds and Burnley led the way, Leeds selling midfielder Georginio Rutter to Brighton for £40m while Fulham enticed the Clarets with £20m for Sander Berge.
Occasionally a Prem club breaches the £30m mark for a man from the lower league and more often than not he comes from a recently-relegated side.
Check the records and you will quickly find evidence that the Championship isn’t half the Premier League nursery the EFL thinks it is.
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Record signings of £40m for Rutter and, a year previously, for James Maddison made bold headlines but Premier League clubs tend towards foreigners who are often more cost effective.
So it is that the in-betweener clubs provide the major pickings for the Premier League clubs.
This was true of Maddison, bought from Leicester City for £40m by Spurs in 2023, through Nathan Ake at £39m from relegated Bournemouth to Man City four seasons ago, to Harvey Barnes (Leicester to Newcastle £38m also a season ago).
But the all-time bargain purchase was the £26m paid by Borussia Dortmund to Birmingham City for Jude Bellingham, then 17.
Although the EFL clubs may be seen by its leaders as a proving ground for higher things, it isn’t all that much.
Although it is fair to say that bigger clubs often step in early on by offering tempting first contracts to highly-promising youngsters.
This means the net for talent is spread very widely.
It still bothers me that the current structure has been used by the EFL as a lever for the introduction of an independent regulator and, their leaders assume, a torrent of fresh Prem pounds.
On the one hand they boast that their leagues total the highest spectator numbers in football — on the other that they need a cash injection.
Georginio Rutter joined the Premier League from Leeds this summer in a £40m deal to Brighton[/caption]
Jude Bellingham left Birmingham for Borussia Dortmund in 2020 for a fee of £26m[/caption]
Does it add up? Remember those warnings along the lines of too much video killing the football game . . . well it hasn’t.
Since wall-to-wall Championship TV, crowd numbers have soared and other divisions are profiting from greater exposure.
Sky are paying £935m for five years of EFL football and the Premier League are adding £1.6bn over three years to help the game flourish right down to park leagues. Advertising and kit sales soar as well.
All these incoming money streams suggest that the lower leagues are earning and generating more cash than ever before.
So what has the regulator got to regulate? Interfere, more like, or even ‘pollute’ is a more appropriate word. Just think of water regulator Ofwat and our filthy rivers.
Football is doing perfectly well as it is, thank you. Which, even so, still leaves an important equation to be solved in both of our chief leagues . . .
That is the expanding gap between ultra-rich Champions League clubs and the rest.
Unpredictability and competition is the essence of league football. It is our ace that wins the watching world’s closest attention. We must not lose it.
SUNSPORT'S TRANSFER NEWS LIVE
TRANSFER Deadline Day is here – with clubs against the clock to finalise their summer business.
Chelsea reportedly remain in talks to sign Victor Osimhen from Napoli, with time running out for the Blues to complete a deal.
Meanwhile, Ivan Toney is expected to join Saudi Pro League club Al-Ahli, according to reports.
Elsewhere, Newcastle are set to walk away from their long-running pursuit of Crystal Palace centre-back Marc Guehi.
In other news, Chelsea and Juventus remain in discussions over a deal for Manchester United winger Jadon Sancho ahead of the 11pm deadline.
Follow our LIVE DEADLINE DAY BLOG for all the latest deals, gossip and exclusives.
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