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While many of the Premier League’s top sides will be like kids in a sweetshop at the prospect of getting their chequebooks out at the conclusion of the upcoming World Cup in Brazil, many of the division’s teams will be looking elsewhere to unearth the unpolished diamonds in the rough that could prove the difference between relegation and mid-table.
England’s World Cup squad contains eight men who have featured in English divisions outside of the top flight, discounting loan deals, with Phil Jagielka, Chris Smalling, Adam Lallana, Leighton Baines, Joe Hart, Ben Foster, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and – famously – Rickie Lambert all plying their trade outside of the Premier League at some point in their careers.
The Championship is an often overlooked division in Premier League recruitment, but has a track record of producing Premier League standard players.
With that in mind, here are five Championship players that could make the step up to the Premier League.
Tom Cairney
Quietly turning around their reputation as a chicken-infested nuthouse, Blackburn’s end of season form almost saw them mount an unlikely assault on the Championship play-off places. Key to that revival was manager Gary Bowyer, but one of his most astute signing must also take a large slice of the credit.
Tom Cairney arrived, first on loan, from Hull City at the beginning of the season, before making the move permanent in January.
At home on the left or at the heart of the Rovers midfielder, Cairney scored five goals and provided six assists last season. Only Leeds United’s Ross McCormack created more chances than Cairney’s 90 in the Championship, while the 23 year old also went past his man 44 times, at a success rate of 81%.
Injury robbed Cairney of the chance to be part of Hull’s Premier League dream, with the Tigers touching upon a winning formula while Cairney was out of the side through injury that left him unable to get back into the team.
Having only just signed for a club at which he is player of the season, Cairney is unlikely to leave soon, but should his form continue then he could find himself earning a second crack at the Premier League.
Ross McCormack
The highest scorer in the division, Ross McCormack looks likely to be on the move this summer. The Leeds forward almost joined West Ham in January, but stayed amidst the end of season chaos that engulfed Elland Road, while Newcastle have also been linked with the 27 year old.
McCormack netted 28 times last season, also creating 107 chances; the highest in the league. He scored with 27.5% of his shots on goal and was directly involved (scored or assisted) in 61% of Leeds’ Championship goals.
Leeds will face a struggle to keep hold of their talisman this summer, with the past season suggesting that he is more than capable of making the step up.
Will Hughes
Perennially linked with a Premier League move, normally to Liverpool, it’s easy to forget that Derby’s Will Hughes is still only 19. In his second full season of football, Hughes made 44 Derby appearances during their run to the Championship play-off final. That run of games yielded four goals and six assists and has seen him rapidly approach 100 professional games.
International recognition has also come his way in the form of seven England under 21 caps, while his pass accuracy of 87% is higher than any other player to regularly represent the Rams last season, just pipping fellow standout central midfielder George Thorne.
Troy Deeney
Another high scoring forward player, Watford’s Troy Deeney has been linked with a move to the Premier League following the damp squib that was their promotion push this season.
Having served his time, both in prison and the lower leagues, Deeney will likely feel the time has come to test himself in the division above. Scoring 45 goals over the past three Championship seasons, he had a conversion rate of 27% this season.
His 24 goals put him behind only McCormack and Jordan Rhodes in the division standings, while only one other Watford player made it into double figures for the season.
Jamaal Lascelles
Linked with a host of the Premier League’s top clubs, Nottingham Forest centre back Lascelles started the season out of the Forest side but ended it as one of the hottest properties outside of the top flight.
The centre back made 29 league appearances last season, scoring the highest Squawka Performance Score of any Forest player since his first start of the season.
Twenty year old Lascelles won 75% of his aerial duels last season and made 271 clearances. With time firmly on his side, Lascelles is likely to be playing Premier League football within the next few seasons; a prospect that Stuart Pearce will hope will be with Forest.
