Watford top this list and have two players in their squad valued at €20m or over. For a team in the Championship, that’s pretty greedy if you ask me.
Wigan meanwhile are rock-bottom, just as they are in the proper table. The other two teams in the bottom three are not a surprise either.
Market values are taken from transfermarkt…
1) Watford – Ismaila Sarr (€22m)
Slaven Bilic’s team is top-heavy, with Sarr (€22m) and Joao Pedro (€20m) being their most valuable assets.
Sarr and Pedro are both Premier League-calibre players though Watford have been left chasing Burnley and Sheffield United in the promotion race. This is partly due to their injuries but also that they are overly reliant upon two sensational players who are a class above the rest of their squad.
2) Norwich City – Max Aarons (€18m)
Going back a couple of years, few would have predicted that Aarons would still be at Norwich with the likes of Manchester United and Bayern Munich interested in him.
His career has plateaued somewhat but the 23-year-old defender still has a lot of growing to do and could find himself at a bigger club soon, especially if the Canaries miss out on promotion.
3=) Blackburn Rovers – Ben Brereton Diaz (€16m)
Rovers have been all over the place this season with 14 wins and 13 losses in 27 league games. While they have been lacking consistency as a team, Brereton Diaz’s goalscoring has not let up.
The Chile international is primed for a move to the Premier League, and someone will likely get themselves a bargain with a free transfer in the summer.
3=) Sheffield United – Sander Berge (€16m)
The midfielder has been a joy in the Championship over the past couple of seasons. The Blades will do well to keep him in the summer with the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea monitoring him.
5) Burnley – Taylor Harwood-Bellis (€13m)
The 20-year-old has shown this season that he has the ability to eventually become a mainstay at boyhood club Manchester City.
Harwood-Bellis will soon be worth a lot more than €13m and Vincent Kompany will be gutted that he is set to be out injured for a couple of months.
6) QPR – Ilias Chair (€10m)
Eberechi Eze left QPR for the Premier League in 2020 and Chair is well-set to eventually follow in the Crystal Palace star’s footsteps.
7=) Hull City – Jacob Greaves (€8m)
Hull City’s recent upturn in form has eased their relegation fears and Greaves’ showings have been key to their success.
The 22-year-old is already being eyed by several Premier League sides and he is another of Hull’s academy products being nurtured for the big time.
7=) Middlesbrough – Cameron Archer (€8m)
The loanee from Aston Villa is the first January signing to appear on this list. Having impressed for Preston last term, Archer could prove to be a key addition as Michael Carrick’s Boro look to seal a play-off spot.
7=) Swansea City – Ben Cabango (€8m)
The soon-to-be Wales mainstay has come into his own this season at the heart of Russell Martin’s defence alongside the equally impressive Harry Darling.
10=) Bristol City – Alex Scott (€7m)
Transfermarkt can often be a tad tight with their valuation of certain players. Scott has fallen victim to this, with Bristol City setting his valuation at a lofty £25m.
The 19-year-old has already played over 70 times for the Championship outfit and is a Football League-made star in the making.
10=) Preston – Liam Delap (€7m)
While his loan spell at rivals Stoke City did not go to plan, Delap is a highly rated member of Manchester City’s academy and may benefit from having someone like Ched Evans to link up with for the rest of this season.
10=) Sunderland – Amad Diallo (€7m)
The 20-year-old has produced some moments of magic this term and will likely be playing in the Premier League next season, either with parent club Man United or with one of their rivals on loan.
10=) West Brom – Daryl Dike (€7m)
Dike has recovered from a serious injury and is shining under Carlos Corberan. It’s a good job he’s better at football than he is at housework.
14=) Birmingham City – Hannibal Mejbri (€6m)
The youngster is well-set to take Ander Herrera’s tag of being Mr Nasty at Man Utd. Mejbri has been plying his trade on loan at St Andrew’s this term to pretty decent effect.
14=) Stoke City – Harry Souttar and Ben Wilmot (€6m)
The Potters are the first of two teams in this table to have two players sharing the label of being the club’s most-valued player. The awkward sods.
Souttar performed well for Australia in Qatar and is likely to earn himself a decent move elsewhere in the coming months. Wilmot could head off as well, especially if Stoke’s ongoing slump results in relegation.
16=) Cardiff City – Callum Robinson (€5m)
The experienced Championship operator was one of Cardiff’s marquee signings in the summer.
Like Stoke, the Bluebirds find themselves in the middle of an unexpected relegation fight but Robinson has been their standout performer with four goals and five assists in the league.
16=) Coventry City – Viktor Gyokeres (€5m)
With Gyokeres, the Sky Blues have a player who should place them way higher on this list.
He has 35 Championship goal involvements in his last 71 games and with interested teams circling, he’s surely a Premier League player in waiting.
16=) Huddersfield Town – Sorba Thomas (€5m)
The Wales winger made a bright start to this season and he was rightly part of Rob Page’s squad at the World Cup.
Though he made himself look a bit daft with his “not fearing England” proclamation before the World Cup and he now finds himself regularly on the bench at relegation strugglers Huddersfield. Talk about a fall from grace.
16=) Millwall – Charlie Cresswell (€5m)
The Leeds United academy product enjoyed an ‘if Carlsberg did’ kind of debut for Millwall with his brace as they beat Stoke 2-0 on the opening day.
Cresswell has not played as much as he would have liked under Gary Rowett though, being an unused substitute for five straight games. A Leeds recall and loan elsewhere is likely for the promising 20-year-old this month.
20=) Luton Town – Elijah Adebayo (€4.5m)
Luton’s lowly spot in this list really shows how well they have done in recent seasons to battle around the play-off positions.
Adebayo – a former Fulham academy product – joined the Hatters for just £250,000 from Walsall in 2021 and netted 17 goals in his debut campaign but his form has dipped this term.
20=) Reading – Tom Holmes (€4.5m)
The 22-year-old has already reached 100 senior appearances for his boyhood club and Paul Ince has backed him by naming the defender as his vice-captain.
22) Blackpool – Jerry Yates and Charlie Patino (€3.5m)
The Seasiders are managerless and are stuck in a battle to avoid relegation back down to League One. But with Yates and Patino, they have two players capable of guiding them to safety.
Yates has grown to be a consistent goalscorer at Championship level, while Patino has been earmarked as a future Arsenal first-teamer and recently signed a new long-term contract.
23) Rotherham United – Ben Wiles (€2.2m)
Wiles – a star of Rotherham’s academy – was linked with Kompany’s Burnley in the summer after he grabbed eight goals and seven assists in League One in 2021/22.
The 23-year-old has shown flashes of brilliance this season but he is sadly out for the remainder of the campaign with a serious ankle injury.
24) Wigan – Ryan Nyambe (€1.8m)
A former regular for Blackburn Rovers, Nyambe was one of Wigan’s only signings in the summer after finishing the 2021/22 season as champions in League One.
Their position in this table says a lot about how little investment has gone into Wigan’s squad in recent windows. That ultimately led to Leam Richardson losing his job and it means Kolo Toure needs to produce some heroics to save the Latics from relegation.
