The 10 most expensive Championship to Premier League transfers after Archie Gray joins Tottenham

The Championship has produced many talents worthy of the top-flight over the years and it has led to Premier League clubs spending significant fees to sign them up.

Here, TEAMtalk lists the top 10 most expensive players to ever move directly from the Championship to the Premier League. Note, while we have included some players who had played in the Premier League before the move in question, we’re not counting players who were bought by a top-flight club immediately in the same summer after suffering relegation, such as Romeo Lavia going from Southampton to Chelsea in 2023, nor those who went from the Championship to a top-flight in another country, such as Jude Bellingham going from Birmingham City to Borussia Dortmund in 2020.

With regards to the transfer fees, we’re basing the list on the initial fees that were paid before any add-ons increased the totals.

10. Adama Traore (Middlesbrough to Wolves) – £18m

After previously struggling to make an impact in the Premier League with Aston Villa and Middlesbrough, it was third time lucky for Adama Traore with Wolves.

The winger’s move to Molineux came after a five-goal season in the Championship with Boro in 2017-18. Wolves had just won promotion to the Premier League and lifted Traore up to the top tier with them by activating a then-club-record-breaking release clause in his contract.

With only one goal in his debut season, Traore didn’t make an instant impact for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side. But goals weren’t the most accurate measure of how he contributed. With his unique blend of strength and pace, Traore was a handful for opponents on the wing and was capable of causing havoc, which he would express over a five-year spell that was even briefly interrupted by a loan spell with Barcelona.

9. Adam Wharton (Blackburn Rovers to Crystal Palace) – £18m

Adam Wharton had never played in the Premier League before Crystal Palace signed him in January 2024, but within six months he had earned his senior England debut and a place in their Euro 2024 squad.

Wharton came through the academy of his boyhood club Blackburn Rovers, who he played 44 times for in the Championship before Crystal Palace picked him up for £18m, potentially rising to £22m.

Palace have had a strong eye for Championship talent in recent years, picking up players like Eberechi Eze from QPR and Michael Olise from Reading (neither of which were for fees big enough for this top 10), and Wharton has quickly followed in their footsteps, even being linked with Olise’s next club Bayern Munich himself recently.

8. Adam Webster (Bristol City to Brighton) – £20m

When Adam Webster joined Portsmouth’s academy in 2007, they were still a Premier League club. By the time he could make his senior debut for them, they were in the Championship and he would then represent them in League One and League Two.

In 2016, Webster jumped back up two leagues when Ipswich Town bought him, and a cross-Championship move to Bristol City followed after two years.

The Robins made a tidy profit on the defender in the space of 12 months, signing him for an initial £3.5m and then selling him to Premier League side Brighton in 2019 for a then-club-record £20m.

Webster has gone on to make more than 100 appearances for Albion.

7. James Maddison (Norwich City to Leicester City) – £20m

Starting out with Coventry City in League One, James Maddison worked his way up the ladder to reach the Premier League. His stop in between was in the Championship with Norwich City.

He spent most of his debut season with Norwich on loan at Aberdeen, before making his breakthrough in 2017-18 by scoring 14 goals in 44 Championship appearances.

It earned him a big move to Leicester, who were consolidating their status as a top-half Premier League outfit. Maddison became their new number 10 and almost instantly settled in as a key player.

In each of his five seasons with Leicester, Maddison made more than 30 Premier League appearances, and he scored double digits of goals in the last two before earning a transfer to Tottenham in 2023 for double the money Leicester had paid for him.

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6. Alex Scott (Bristol City to Bournemouth) – £20m

Having started out in non-league with his local club Guernsey, Alex Scott joined Bristol City as an academy player in 2020. His Championship debut followed in April 2021.

Around this time, Scott started to be noticed by selectors for the England underage teams. The midfielder made significant progress over the next couple of years, racking up 80 Championship appearances in his final two seasons with the Robins.

He was named the Bristol City player of the year for 2022-23, which was the springboard for him to become a Premier League player.

Bournemouth bought him in 2023 for £20m – plus up to £5m in add-ons – after previously having him in training as a youth player. He made 23 appearances in his first top-flight season, starting three of the last five games.

5. Jarrod Bowen (Hull City to West Ham) – £22m

Jarrod Bowen actually went from the Conference Premier to the Premier League when Hull City signed him from Hereford in 2014, but he was initially a reserve player. His first seven Premier League appearances came in his third season in East Yorkshire, by the end of which the Tigers were relegated for the second time in three years.

Over the next two-and-a-half years in the Championship, Bowen blossomed, scoring 52 goals from 124 second-tier matches. It prompted West Ham to invest in him during the January 2020 transfer window.

Bowen quickly adapted with the step up, scoring on his first West Ham start, and kept developing to the point where he could make his England debut in 2022.

After scoring the winning goal in the 2022-23 Europa Conference League final, Bowen scored 20 goals in the 2023-24 season, the best return of his career to date.

4. Said Benrahma (Brentford to West Ham) – £25m (including loan fee)

Nine months after the Bowen deal, West Ham plundered the Championship again to sign Said Benrahma from Brentford on an initial loan deal, paying £5m for the privilege.

Benrahma had scored double figures of goals in both of his full seasons with Brentford since arriving in the Championship in 2018.

He only netted once in his debut season with West Ham, but midway through it they made his move permanent for an additional £20m (plus up to £5m more in add-ons), which helped clear up an extra loan space in their squad.

The Algerian winger improved his output over the next couple of seasons, surpassing the 10-goals-in-all-competitions barrier both times and helping the Hammers win the Europa Conference League. He left for Lyon in 2024.

3. Ollie Watkins (Brentford to Aston Villa) – £28m

Some eyebrows were raised when Aston Villa broke their club record to sign Ollie Watkins in September 2020. Few would doubt it was great business now.

With 25 goals, Watkins was the second top scorer in the 2019-20 Championship season. However, Brentford lost to Fulham in the play-off final to miss out on promotion.

Having previously signed him for Brentford, Dean Smith lifted Watkins up to the top tier with Villa, who paid £28m up front with a possible further £5m in add-ons. Six months later, the striker would become a senior England international.

Watkins has never looked back since becoming a Premier League player, scoring double figures of goals in four successive seasons. The 27 goals in all competitions he scored in 2023-24 was a career-best tally.

2. Joao Pedro (Watford to Brighton) – £30m

Watford originally brought Joao Pedro to the Premier League from Brazilian side Fluminense in January 2020, but they became a bit of a yo-yo club during his spell at Vicarage Road.

Pedro played in the Premier League for his first six months – albeit not much – before spending his first full Watford season in the Championship and helping them win promotion back to the top tier.

Another drop down to the Championship followed after just a year, but it benefited Pedro, who went on to enjoy the best season of his career up to that point by scoring 11 goals. However, Watford finished mid-table.

It didn’t prevent Pedro from rising up the leagues again, though, as Brighton parted with a club-record fee in the region of £30m to make him a Premier League player again.

During his first season with the Seagulls, which also included a Europa League run, Pedro top-scored with a new career-high of 20 goals in all competitions.

1. Archie Gray (Leeds United to Tottenham) – £40m (including counterpart)

Archie Gray made headlines in December 2021, when at the age of 15, he was named on the Leeds bench for a Premier League match against Arsenal. Alas, Marcelo Bielsa didn’t send him on.

Gray’s debut instead had to wait until he was 17. Leeds had suffered relegation to the Championship in 2023, and while it meant many players leaving, it also meant an opportunity for Gray to break through.

He became one of the most-used players for Daniel Farke’s side in 2023-24, as Leeds lost in the play-off final. Starring either at right-back or in midfield, Gray was not just named Leeds’ Young Player of the Season, but the entire Championship’s.

With sky-high potential, Leeds immediately faced interest from top-flight clubs in Gray after failing to return to the Premier League, which opened up an exit clause in his contract. First, Brentford tried to buy him, but in the end, Tottenham won the race.

By joining Tottenham from a second-tier Leeds, Gray followed in the footsteps of players like Jack Clarke and, further back in time, Aaron Lennon.

As part of the Gray package, Joe Rodon – another player Tottenham had bought from a Championship club initially – made his loan move to Leeds permanent for £10m, but the overall value of the deal accumulated to what is believed to be a record fee for a Championship to Premier League transfer.

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