With the lure of Premier League football becoming increasingly enticing, Championship clubs are spending vast sums of money to try and get to the promised land.
In most cases, the highest spending Championship clubs tend to be the sides that’ve just been relegated from the Premier League, given that they receive parachute payments.
We’ve gone back throughout Championship history and have found the five highest spending second-tier clubs and have assessed how they did.
5. Burnley 2024-25 – £46.98million
After being relegated from the Premier League under Vincent Kompany, Burnley went about rebuilding their squad in 2024-25 under Scott Parker.
While they did spend just shy of £50million that summer, it’s worth noting that the club made over £90million through player sales.
Their most expensive signing in the summer of 2024 was Mike Tresor, who they had the obligation to purchase after his loan spell the previous year.
Despite paying £15.4million for the winger, he didn’t make a single league appearance for the Clarets last season as he struggled to remain fit.
Other notable signings from 2024-25 include the likes of Maxime Esteve, Hannibal Mejbri, Joe Worrall, Andreas Hountondji, Josh Laurent and Lucas Pires.
Ultimately, Burnley’s recruitment paid off, as the club accumulated 100 points and gained promotion back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
4. Middlesbrough 2017-18 – £48.2million
After being relegated from the Premier League in 2017, Middlesbrough spent big in the hopes of a quick return to the top flight.
Given the outgoings of Marten de Roon, Jordan Rhodes, Gaston Ramirez and Adam Forshaw, they practically broke even with their spend, but boy did they waste a lot of money in the summer of 2017.
The club completely overhauled their forward line, signing Britt Assombalonga, Martin Braithwaite and Ashley Fletcher for a combined fee of around £30million.
They also spent big on the likes of Jonathan Howson, Darren Randolph, Ryan Shotton, Cyrus Christie and Marvin Johnson.
Despite their large spend, the majority of new signings struggled to live up to expectations and after losing in the playoffs, Boro’s squad from 2017-18 was slowly dismantled.
3. Stoke City 2018-19 – £54.5million
Following their relegation in 2017-18, Stoke City seemed determined to return to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
The club hired Gary Rowett and gave him a war chest of over £50million to rebuild the squad.
After signing the likes of Benik Afobe, Tom Ince, Sam Vokes, Ryan Woods, Sam Clucas and James McClean, the club was being tipped as promotion favourites before a ball had been kicked.
However, it soon became apparent that the Potters had really dropped the ball in the transfer market as the majority of their new recruits ended up struggling before being sold for a loss.
The club finished 16th in the Championship despite spending £54.5million and they’ve arguably never recovered since then.
Now entering their eighth consecutive season in the second tier, Stoke have never finished above 14th place during that time.
2. Newcastle United 2016-17 – £55.7million
Upon being relegated to the Championship, Newcastle were always going to be a big fish in a relatively small pond.
They managed to generate over £90million through player sales, with the likes of Moussa Sissoko, Georginio Wijnaldum and Andros Townsend all being sold for large fees.
Using that money, Rafael Benitez’s side spent big on notable signings such as Matt Ritchie, Dwight Gayle, Grant Hanley, Matz Sels, Ciaran Clark and DeAndre Yedlin.
Ultimately, most of those signings paid off as Newcastle won the league, accumulating an impressive 94 points.
1. Aston Villa 2016-17 – £74.1million
Aston Villa still hold the title as the biggest spending Championship club in a single season.
Roberto Di Matteo was given the funds to assemble a second-tier super team and things didn’t exactly go to plan.
Ross McCormack was their most high-profile signing and he turned out to be an absolute disaster. Signed for £12million on a four-year deal, he scored just three goals in 24 appearances for the club.
After sacking Di Matteo in October and hiring Steve Bruce, the club ultimately slumped to 13th in the table and finished 18 points adrift of the top six.
The club then lost in the playoff final in 2017-18 before Dean Smith was finally able to get Villa over the line and back to the Premier League in 2019.
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