Championship Goalscorers: Fast-Track to Profit in a Single Season

The Championship is well-renowned for being the hardest league in the country. And for good reason. A gruelling 46-game season playing against vastly different playstyles each week, means players must maintain a strong mentality in order to perform to their desired level consistently.

And it is consistency which is so important in the division, especially for strikers, with their performances constantly monitored and their market values exponentially impacted depending on their pure number of goals throughout the campaign.

All clubs look for a striker to rely on up front, to score goals and most importantly for some, to make a profit. A few clubs even strategise by recruiting overlooked or undervalued forwards and attempt to guide them to provide a good return in front of goal.

Here, Football Park delves into some of these players who have been able to make a significant and immediate impact to Championship clubs, securing a big payoff after just one strong season.

Quick Profits

(Screenshotted Stats Provided By TransferMarkt)

In this section, we illustrate how quickly the stocks can rise for some players following one very strong season in England’s second tier. These transfers give each club around €20m or more in profits, proving how going for young strikers with potential or overlooked talents is not necessarily the riskier play.

We start off with Chelsea’s recent FIFA Club World Cup semi final hero Joao Pedro, who earned Watford a quick profit just three years ago. He was able to contribute 11 goals and four assists, helping Watford to an underwhelming mid table finish before being shipped on to Brighton for a handy €34.2m. A strong profit of over €20m from when he joined the Hornets.

Next, we head back to the 2018/19 campaign, where Oli McBurnie had a monumental season with Swansea City, scoring 22 goals and assisting four on their way to a tenth-place finish. Chris Wilder then believed he was ready to make the step up to the Premier League, as Sheffield United swooped in for €19.1m – and considering he joined the Swans for just €350k, this was great business as far as the Welsh outfit were concerned, as that remains his best goal return to date.

Lastly in this section, we head to the second current Premier League side in Brentford, who acquired a healthy profit after selling Ollie Watkins to Aston Villa following their failed promotion push in 2020. In a season where the Bees were scoring goals for fun, it was Watkins that led the way for his side, scoring 25 goals as they fell short to Fulham in the Playoff Final. Watkins then moved on to Villa Park for €34m – in the region of a handy €27m profit.

The Golden Finds

Now we take a closer look at certain overlooked and young talents who have also made their clubs roll in money after not previously finding as much success as they wished – but one season was all it took for their market values to skyrocket.

Ivan Toney

We start this section with Ivan Toney, who spent the early years of his career unsettled, finding himself heading out on loan from Newcastle season on season at a number of EFL clubs. Toney could never really get going until Peterborough United gave him a chance, signing him on for €390k from the Magpies. He then scored 16 goals in his debut season, before adding 24 in 32 games in a shortened 2019/20 as the Posh missed out on playoffs by one point.

He was the top scorer and named Player of the Season before completing a €5.6m move to Brentford. In his first Championship season, he set a then record for goals scored, registering 32 goals as they earned promotion to the first tier. His market value jetted to €30m, before playing a minute in the Premier League. The 29-year-old went on to bag 32 goals in his opening two campaigns in the top-flight and eventually moved on for a massive €42m to Al-Ahli last summer.

Viktor Gyökeres

We move onto our first player who achieved a move abroad following a successful campaign in front of goal in the Championship. Viktor Gyökeres came to England by way of Brighton for €1m. The Swedish forward struggled with the Seagulls, scoring just one senior club goal in amidst of loan moves to St Pauli, Swansea and Coventry. When he moved to the latter, the Sky Blues believed he did enough to earn a move permanently there, for €1.2m after scoring three in 19 appearances.

Viktor Gyokeres reportedly is willing to sacrifice £1.7M of his future salary to force through a move to Arsenal 😳🔴 pic.twitter.com/uy5aLRnjns

— Mail Sport (@MailSport) July 7, 2025

He only failed to feature in just one game over the next two seasons, as he followed 17 goals in his first season, with 21 in his next. This caught the eye of clubs over Europe, with Sporting Lisbon eventually sealing his signature in 2023 for €24m, €6m under his value. Gyökeres has since scored a mammoth 68 goals and 17 assists in just 66 Liga Portugal appearances, raising his stock even further, as he now finds himself linked with Arsenal for a reported £69m+add-ons.

Cameron Archer

Cameron Archer came through the Aston Villa youth set-up which is renowned for producing promising talents – Jack Grealish, Gary Cahill, and Gareth Barry to name a few. He was on the outskirts of a Premier League debut for a number of seasons, before being granted an opportunity on loan to Barnet where he scored four goals in 26 appearances. He earned his Premier League debut the following season, however, Archer struggled to breakthrough consistently.

This led to him being loaned out to Preston for the second half of the 2021/22 season, where he scored seven times from 20 matches. It was his next loan which increased his value substantially, however. His move to Middlesbrough proved the best for both parties, with Archer contributing to 17 goals in 20 appearances to earn him €21.55m switch to Bramall Lane.

That loan earned Villa a full profit from the sale, which they later increased more by an extra €1m, buying him back the following summer, before selling him to Southampton a month later for an extra bit of profit. Smart business by cashing in on a Championship striker who has disappointed in the top-flight.

Why Does One Good Season Mean a Significant Rise in Value?

Market values are all calculated on form, so especially for strikers, if they experience a lasting goal-drought, their market value will also depreciate. This is why these players are able to help their clubs generate a healthy profit every season by returning goals.

If a forward is in scintillating form, then it is no surprise that bigger and better clubs from around the world will be eyeing them up. And with this demand, it is also what will rise their values significantly, giving clubs the chance for a big payout. This is a prime example in how some Championship clubs operate. They will make their sole recruitment strategy to find overlooked or young talents who are yet to be given a chance to prove themselves. We had both Ollie Watkins and Ivan Toney on this list; neither came from good academies but through being given a chance by Championship clubs, they not only earned a big move, but their clubs earned a good profit.

Watkins and Toney had amazing seasons with their clubs, which then made it apparent to top clubs in the country that they were Premier League quality, and after one strong season, could be relied upon to hit the ground running, which we also saw with both of these players and what makes them so desirable.

Football is quickly becoming all about profits, with Chelsea’s transfer strategy a prime example. The Championship, however, is one of the most prestigious and watched second tier leagues in the world. We are seeing more recently, clubs look to buy these types of strikers, enable them to have one good season, then send them off for an easy profit. Clubs who succeed with this strategy multiple times then not only set the standard of rivals in the league but will also draw more of these types of players, and also clubs may come back for another forward in the future.