The 15 most controversial EFL Championship transfers of all time (Ranked)..
With the Championship season now concluded, clubs from across the division will be preparing for the summer transfer window.
The transfer window will be structured slightly differently this summer, with clubs able to do business between the 1st and 10th June before the Club World Cup, and then again from the 16th June all the way through to the 1st September.
With the potential prize of Premier League football on offer, many second tier sides are likely to invest heavily in their squads this summer, and newly-promoted duo Wrexham and Birmingham City are expected to be among the biggest spenders outside the top flight in addition to the three relegated clubs, so an intriguing few months could be ahead.
There have been plenty of eye-catching transfer deals in the Championship over the years, and we looked back and ranked the top 15 most controversial transfers that have taken place in the division.
The top 15 most controversial Championship transfers of all time
Rank
Player
Clubs involved
15
Max Lowe
Sheffield United to Sheffield Wednesday
14
Scott Hogan
Aston Villa to Birmingham City
13
Cyrus Christie
Derby County to Middlesbrough
12
Mike Tresor
Genk to Burnley
11
Steve Morison
Norwich City to Leeds United
10
Gary Madine
Cardiff City to Sheffield United
9
Sam Winnall
Barnsley to Sheffield Wednesday
8
Alex Pritchard
Sunderland to Birmingham City
7
Brandon Williams
Manchester United to Ipswich Town
6
Kris Commons
Nottingham Forest to Derby County
5
Matty Taylor
Bristol Rovers to Bristol City
4
Wayne Rooney
DC United to Derby County
3
Ross McCormack
Leeds United to Fulham
2
Ruben Neves
Porto to Wolves
1
Jean-Kevin Augustin
RB Leipzig to Leeds United.
15
Max Lowe – Sheffield United to Sheffield Wednesday
Max Lowe
While there are a handful of players who have represented both Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, it is incredibly rare for anyone to make the move directly across the Steel City, but that is exactly what defender Max Lowe did in the summer.
Lowe spent four years at Bramall Lane, and he was part of the squad that won promotion to the Premier League in the 2022-23 season, but after being released by the Blades at the end of his contract, he opted to join their bitter rivals.
Given that United had chosen to allow Lowe to depart, his switch to Hillsborough was not greeted with the animosity it perhaps could have been in other circumstances, but the 28-year-old was still not given a particularly warm welcome when he returned to his former club with the Owls in November.
14
Scott Hogan – Aston Villa to Birmingham City
Scott Hogan scores for Birmingham City vs Bristol City
Just as with United and Wednesday, there are very few players who have made the transition from Aston Villa to Birmingham over the years, but striker Scott Hogan is one of those.
Hogan joined Villa from Brentford for a fee of £12 million in January 2017, but he scored just 10 goals in 61 games for the club, and after spells out on loan with Sheffield United and Stoke City, he made a temporary move to St Andrew’s in January 2020.
The deal was made permanent that summer, and Hogan went on to score 36 goals in 158 appearances for the Blues, but it was not all plain sailing for the former Republic of Ireland international, who recently admitted that he “fell out of love with football” during his time at the club.
13
Cyrus Christie – Derby County to Middlesbrough
Cyrus Christie for Hull City
On the face of it, there looked to be little wrong with defender Cyrus Christie’s £2.5 million move from Derby County to Middlesbrough in the summer of 2017, but the deal would soon be at the centre of controversy.
It was revealed by the Daily Mail in 2019 that Boro were accusing former manager Garry Monk and his agent James Featherstone of “deceiving them in the transfer market to the tune of millions of pounds”, and the signing of Christie was one of the deals the Teesside outfit decided to investigate.
Boro were said to be unhappy to discover that Featherstone had been acting for Derby when they completed a deal for Christie, and it also emerged that they had only wanted to pay around £1.75 million for the right-back, but Monk’s agent had encouraged the Rams to hold out for a higher price.
Christie spent just six months at the Riverside Stadium, making 26 appearances for the club before joining Fulham in January 2018, and it is fair to say that the allegations against Monk and Featherstone cast a cloud of suspicion over the signing.
12
Mike Tresor – Genk to Burnley
Untitled design (20)
Despite failing to deliver during his loan spell at Turf Moor in the Premier League, Burnley were obligated to sign winger Mike Tresor from Genk on a permanent basis in the summer for a fee of £15.4 million.
However, it soon emerged that Ajax were interested in Tresor, and after failing to secure a move to the Dutch giants, the 25-year-old made his frustration clear on social media, further burning his bridges with Clarets supporters who were already unimpressed by his performances the previous season.
After the summer transfer saga, Tresor made just one FA Cup appearance for Burnley during their promotion-winning campaign, and to add even more mystery to his continued absence, neither head coach Scott Parker nor owner Alan Pace were able to explain why the Belgian international was not involved, making it one of the most baffling situations ever seen in the Championship.
11
Steve Morison – Norwich City to Leeds United
4-2
While the two clubs are not geographically linked, there is certainly no love lost between Leeds United and Millwall, so the arrival of ex-Lions star Steve Morison at Elland Road from Norwich City in January 2013 caught many by surprise.
Morison joined the Whites as part of a swap deal that saw Luciano Becchio move in the opposite direction to Carrow Road, and manager Neil Warnock predicted that supporters would soon forget any reservations they had about the signing of the striker, but that did not prove to be the case.
The 41-year-old scored just five goals in 42 appearances for Leeds either side of a loan spell with Millwall, and after an underwhelming stint in West Yorkshire, he returned to The Den on a permanent basis in August 201
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