Championship transfers 2024/25: eye-catching early moves

Much of the focus during the first part of the off-season was on the European Championships, but while most of us feasted on the delights of major-tournament football, domestic clubs worked away in the background to get deals done.

Lots of the Premier League business will be done further down the line as the deadline nears, but for Championship clubs, plenty has already happened in terms of transfers.

With less than three weeks until the curtain raises in England’s second tier, let’s look at some of the eye-catching deals that have already been struck.

Eye-catching early transfers

Of course, there’s no way of saying categorically that some transfers are better than all others, but of the deals already done and dusted ahead of the new Championship season, here are some of the most eye-catching:

Player	Position	Joining	Leaving	Fee (reported)	Last season
Jayden Bogle	Full-back/winger	Leeds United	Sheffield United	£5.00 million	34 appearances in Premier League, 3 goals, 60 progressive passes
Zan Celar	Forward	QPR	Lugano	£1.70 million	36 appearances in Swiss Super Lig, 14 goals, 3 assists, 0.70 goals & assists per 90
Andreas Hountoudhji	Forward	Burnley	SM Caen	£3.30 million	34 appearances in Ligue 2, 14 goals, 5 assists, 0.76 goals & assists per 90
Lucas Pires	Full-back	Burnley	Santos	£2.00 million	28 appearances on loan for Cadiz in LaLiga
Vaclav Hladky	Goalkeeper	Burnley	Ipswich	Free transfer	46 appearances, 14 clean sheets, 66.7% save percentage
Jose Cordoba	Central defender	Norwich City	Levski Sofia	£3.00 million	29 appearances in Bulgarian First League
Aidan Morris	Central midfielder	Middlesbrough	Columbus Crew	£2.90 million	16 appearances in MLS (2024), 2 goals, 2 assists
Delano Burgzorg	Winger	Middlesbrough	Mainz	£2.30 million	33 appearances in Championship (loan), seven goals, two assists, 0.37 goals & assists per 90
Jack Rudoni	Central midfielder	Coventry City	Huddersfield	£4.90 million	35 appearances for Huddersfield, five goals, 3 assists, 0.24 goals & assists per 90
Fally Mayulu	Forward	Bristol City	Rapid Vienna	£5.00 million	28 appearances in Austrian Bundesliga, six goals, 3 assists, 0.70 goals & assists per 90

One of the more expensive players on the list above is Jayden Bogle, who was unable to help his team stay in the Premier League last season, but who could give promotion hopefuls Leeds a huge boost this time around.

Swapping one Yorkshire club for another, the energetic full-back/slash winger brings pace and a willingness to get forward to Daniel Farke’s attack-minded team. He also brings promotion-winning experience, having twice won promotion to the Premier League with the Blades.

Another notable Championship signing sees Zan Celar, who recently featured a few times for Slovenia at Euro 2024, join QPR.

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The forward will arrive at Loftus Road having scored 14 goals for Lugano in the Swiss Super League last season. In three seasons at the club in total, Celar banged in 40 league goals, contributing eight assists. Not bad at all.

Sure, we’ve seen players enter the Championship from similar leagues and struggle to get going. England’s second division has a gruelling schedule, while the game is typically played at a ferocious and demanding pace, so it’s easy to see why players that thrive elsewhere in Europe sometimes fail to fit in.

However, I'm willing to bet that Celar has the physical presence to cope with the cut and thrust of the Championship, while, playing with the likes of Ilias Chair and Lucas Andersen, he’s unlikely to be starved of service either.

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Early business done by team looking to bounce back

Under Vincent Kompany, who refused to divert from a style of play that simply did not provide enough substance to stay in the top flight, Burnley had a tough time of it last season.

Despite leading a relatively resounding relegation, Kompany was handed the Bayern Munich job, much to the surprise of many, leaving the Clarets to search for a new boss.

Scott Parker is the man tasked with the job of getting Burnley back into the Premier League, and he has experience of doing exactly that, guiding both Fulham and Bournemouth to promotion in recent years.

Parker has so far been busy in the transfer market, as the table above shows. Burnley have brought in three eye-catching signings.

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Experienced keeper Vaclav Hladky is something of a steal. The Czech stopper was key in Ipswich’s promotion campaign last time around, and although he may be disappointed not to get a crack in the Premier League, he can be a big player at Turf Moor.

Brazilian full-back Lucas Pires and Benin forward Andreas Hountoudhji both arrive as unknowns, at least in the sense that they’ve never before played in England, but such signings certainly show Burnley’s intent.

The latter heads to Turf Moor having enjoyed himself in France’s second division for Rodez last season, not only scoring 14 goals, but registering five assists, producing eye-catching averages of 0.76 goals and assists per 90 minutes and 0.74 expected goals and expected assisted goals per 90 minutes.

Other notable signings

The signings above are far from the only notable transfers. Let’s take a look at a few other Championship moves that shouldn’t be ignored.

Kieffer Moore enjoyed a promising campaign whilst on loan at Ipswich last season, scoring a handful of important goals towards the end of the season, helping his temporary club to earning a place in the Premier League.

The forward won’t be heading to Portman Road on a permanent basis, but he does have a new full-time home in the Championship. Leaving Bournemouth for a reported fee of around £1.5 million, Moore has joined recently relegated Sheffield United.

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Kieffer Moore is not only an experienced goal scorer at this level, scoring 20 goals for Cardiff City during the 2020-21 season, but as a genuine target man, he offers an alternative option, one that defenders often struggle to cope with.

Elsewhere, the Swans have moved for South Korean Ji-Sung-eom, who goes to the Welsh club from Gwangju FC.

At just 22, having not played outside of his homeland, the midfielder is something of an unknown quality, but we’ve seen other inexperienced South Koreans make a splash before, so don’t be surprised if he turns out to be an influential player for Luke Williams’ team.

Is there a betting angle?

Right, is there a betting angle here? Well, it’s a tenuous one at best, but I’m going to use this as an opportunity to bolster my pre-season Championship betting armory by adding the following:

Middlesbrough to be Promoted

Towards the end of the previous season, I was very much of the opinion that Middlesbrough, before eventually finishing four points shy of the play-offs, weren’t far away from being a side that could challenge for promotion.

Under Michael Carrick, Boro became not an easy side to face, while they also looked like a team with plenty going for them offensively, with the pace and creativity of players such as Isaiah Jones and Finn Azaz complementing goal-scoring powerhouse Emmanuel Latte Lath, who scored 16 league goals in 30 appearances last season.

After what was clearly a promising campaign, they appeared to need only one or two extra pieces to complete the puzzle. Carrick may just have found those missing pieces in Aidan Morris and Delano Burgzorg.

Crucially, they’ve kept all of their key players, bringing in two decent-looking signings. Morris quickly became a big player for the Columbus Crew in 2024, showing bags of energy and industry in midfield, which will be handy in the Championship.

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In Burgzorg, Boro are getting an explosive and tricky wide player, one who showed flashes of brilliance when on loan at Huddersfield last season, registering nine goals and assists.

With a season of Championship football under his belt, in what is undoubtedly a better equipped team, the Dutchman should be a very useful player.

Having added to what was already a very nice squad, one that wasn’t far away at all from the play-offs last season, I’m betting on Middlesbrough to progress this season and lay down a serious challenge for promotion.