⁠Top 7 EFL Championship clubs making the smartest use of their money (Ranked) | OneFootball

Which second tier outfits have been spending their cash in the cleverest of ways?

Due to the influx of money that has come into English football since the Premier League began, the spending in the division below has gone up and up over the years.

As television rights money has increased and trickled down from the top, so has the spending, from Man City's splurge in 2001/02 to get back to the Premier League, to the modern day where most clubs are splashing the cash and breaking their transfer records.

But which SEVEN Championship sides have been the smartest when it comes to making and spending their money in recent times? FLW takes a look and ranks them...

7 ? ? West Brom

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Due to the loss of their parachute payments, West Brom's financial situation hasn't been great in recent years, but Shilen Patel has been doing his best to get the Midlands outfit back on a sound footing.

The 2023-24 season was their first without the help of solidarity payments in a long time, and a loss of over £33 million was racked up - something which was not good at all for anyone concerned.

The wage bill has been cut considerably since and a transfer profit was made last year, and that has led to the Baggies hierarchy allowing a decent amount of spending over the summer of 2026, and there's now a clear method to bringing in younger players in their early 20's.

Toby Collyer, Kareem Tunde, Rabby Nzingoula, Barney Stewart, Jimmy-Jay Morgan and a number of other new Albion players fit that category, and you get the feeling that in a couple of years time, West Brom could be either making big profits, or they'll be challenging for promotion (if they haven't already won it) with their new young and hungry squad,

6 ? ? Norwich City

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Norwich City have been in the Championship since 2022, and truth be told, they haven't been massively close to returning since.

Now in their fifth year since relegation from the top flight, the Canaries clawed a lot of transfer money back in 2023-24 with the sales of the likes of Andrew Omobamidele and Max Aarons, but since the following year, their recruitment policy has become more broader and exciting.

From Panama internationals to Croatian youngsters to finding bargains lower down in the EFL, there's been plenty of exciting arrivals at Carrow Road, and you only have to look at the two strikers in Jovon Makama and Mohamed Toure who were signed from Lincoln City and Randers respectively for around a combined £3.8 million - they've both made fans completely forget about Josh Sargent, that's for sure.

City have some serious assets on their hands if they do want to cash in on them down the line, and whilst Ben Knapper has had some critics since his arrival from Arsenal as sporting director, there's plenty of good he's done to make sure that Norwich have a promising future.

5 ? ? QPR

Whilst lots of Championship clubs opted to splash the cash due to the financial rules changing to SCR (squad cost ratio), QPR decided to cut their cloth accordingly, with the only fee they spent being on Motherwell goalkeeper Calum Ward.

Their loans and freebies will have still cost decent money however, especially wage-wise, but the business done at Loftus Road was a far cry from what they did a year prior.

In 2025, investments were made on the likes of Richard Kone, Kader Dembele, Koki Saito and Ronnie Edwards, which was a deal that came later on in the season but it was an ambitious, large outlay for a club that had gotten used to signing cheaper players.

What the R's now have though is sellable assets, with Edwards being the main one that will be in-demand in the months and years to come, but their summer non-spending in 2026 saw talents like Dennis Cirkin and Tariq Lamptey arrive on frees.

Cirkin especially is a player that could be a big sale down the line if he plays like he did at Sunderland, and with the way Julien Stephan's squad has been constructed, it's made down the line for either a promotion challenge, or for profits to be made.

4 ? ? Bristol City

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Down the years, Bristol City have been very good at signing players for relatively little and selling them on for big profit - you only have to look at names like Jonathan Kodjia, Adam Webster, Josh Brownhill and others to know that recruitment at Ashton Gate is relatively smart.

The Robins academy has also showed strong results though, with Bobby Reid, Joe Bryan, Lloyd Kelly, Antoine Semenyo and Alex Scott all proof that a very smart shop is being ran at Ashton Gate and beyond.

Further investments have been made into the City academy system as they train alongside the men's team at the Robins High Performance Centre, and with the catchment area they have, it's little surprise to see the talents that end up coming through.

There was some criticism of the Lansdown Family earlier in the year for selling both Zak Vyner and Anis Mehmeti in the January transfer window without bringing in direct replacements, especially as they landed a big sell-on clause for the aforementioned Semenyo's move from Bournemouth to Man City, but their transfer firepower was saved for the summer.

Investing into League One talents Lorent Tolaj, Dom Ballard and Sam Tickle could prove fruitful down the line, whilst Lisav Naif Eissat and Gibson Yah have both come from further afield, yet are in a similar, potentially profit-making mould, and the early signs of that spending is certainly encouraging.

3 ? ? Swansea City

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Having not been a Premier League club since 2018, Swansea City may finally be in a position to challenge for promotion once more - and it could be down to their new trading model.

The Swans made plenty of transfer money back in the three years after relegation to claw back their losses, and even in 2023-24, the sale of Joel Piroe contributed to the club making even more money than what they spent.

The last two summers though in particular have been really invested in - Adam Idah, Zeidane Inoussa, Joseph Opoku, Moussa Yeo and Elijah Just are just some of the big-money signings through the door for the South Wales outfit, with both Brett Cravatt and Jason Cohen clearly committed to trying to get them back into the top flight.

With Snoop Dogg on board too, City have never been more commercially viable, but they've also showed they aren't afraid to make bold calls - just a year after his arrival from Leyton Orient, Ethan Galbraith was flipped to Stoke City for significant profit, in a move that whilst puzzling at the time, may have been for the greater good, given it helped Swansea to invest into multiple younger players.

2 ? ? Middlesbrough

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Middlesbrough may be very used to spending money and pushing the boat out for new signings, but if they've got it right this summer with the majority of their deals, then they may have hit the jackpot.

Buying Emmanuel Latte Lath, Morgan Rogers and Finn Azaz relatively cheap has led to big rewards for chairman Steve Gibson, who flipped all of them for a big profit, and in the case of Rogers, a significant sell-on clause landed from his switch to Chelsea that allowed Boro to strengthen even more significantly for a promotion push in 2026-27.

Initial fees for Will Lankshear, Radek Vitek and Ash Phillips total around £22 million, but if all add-ons are met for every player, then Boro will have spent the best part of £55 million on what could be the spine of their team for years to come.

Boro have explored the American market too, with the arrivals of Aidan Morris a few years ago, as well as Sebastian Berhalter and Max Arfsten more recently - Kim Hellberg has been backed with a lot of new big-money arrivals at the Riverside Stadium, and there will be an expectation that the Teessiders will be challenging for promotion come May 2027 with how Gibson has spent his money.

Only time will tell as to whether their recent business has been smart, but given the Lankshear, Vitek and Phillips deals will be heavily contingent on promotion being won for the bulk of the add-ons being paid, Boro will be hoping that the add-ons will be getting paid further down the line.

1 ? ? Millwall

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For a club who have been reluctant to spend much money at all on transfer fees over the years, the new-found recruitment strategy of Millwall has been a breath of fresh air.

Rarely in the modern day have the Lions either created or nurtured their own talents, either through the academy or bought on the cheap, to then sell on for big money, but the sale of Romain Esse to Crystal Palace for an initial £12 million in January 2025 may have been the turning point.

Millwall's venturing into the European recruitment market actually pre-dated Esse's departure to Palace, with Zian Flemming arriving from Fortuna Sittard in 2023, and the likes of Casper De Norre, Mihailo Ivanovic, Camiel Neghli, Derek Mazou-Sacko and others have arrived at The Den with little known about them, but they've developed under the tutelage of Alex Neil.

Since Esse's sale to Crystal Palace, Millwall have raked in significant fees for Flemming, Japhet Tanganga and Femi Azeez, who were all brought in for modest cash, and their signings have continued to be punts from European leagues as well as League One - Kyrell Lisbie, Jenson Metcalfe, Yanis Issoufou, Mathis Servais and Taïryk Arconte show that there could be more profit to be made in years to come.

It's an exciting time to be a Millwall fan, and there won't be anyone complaining at their transfer business in recent years as long as results are coming on the pitch.