Manchester United and Liverpool could shatter transfer record this summer as £404.5m XI revealed | OneFootball

Any of Elliot Anderson, Spurs stalwart Micky van de Ven and even a handful of West Ham stars could crash the most expensive Championship XI ever this summer.

Manchester United are said to be monitoring Morgan Gibbs-White, with Nottingham Forest teammate Anderson a known target for most clubs in the Premier League.

West Ham even have a few players worthy of breaking into this XI of the most expensive sales in Championship history, worth a combined £404.5m.

Jordan Pickford (£30m, Sunderland to Everton, 2017)

While they are hardly an institution famed for financial prudence, Everton’s investment of £30m on a 23-year-old keeper with a single entirely miserable season of Premier League football to his name deserves often literally rave reviews.

Pickford had stood out for Sunderland during their relegation campaign almost a decade ago, albeit in the same way someone only flecked by manure would stand out against those covered head to toe.

Perhaps that experience readied him for some unexpected tussles at that end of the table with the Toffees, who he has helped keep up more often than he’d like. But with his career coming full circle under David Moyes again, Pickford’s loyalty is being rewarded with some overdue mid-table serenity.

Tino Livramento (£32m, Southampton to Newcastle, 2023)

When Livramento embraced his move to Newcastle by noting that he would “be able to learn from Kieran Trippier” about “how to become a better player and a better full-back,” he perhaps did not expect those teachings to extend well into 2026 and include lessons about being run into the actual ground by Eddie Howe.

Livramento has undoubtedly benefited from those influences to develop into an excellent full-back worthy of inevitable links with Manchester City. If he could just pick up a few tips from Trippier on how to not break all the time he’d be golden.

Archie Gray (£30m, Leeds to Spurs, 2024)

The only thing better than Gray moving to Spurs at 18 in July 2024 and finding himself below the club he left in Leeds by February 2026 with a Europa League winner’s medal won in the interim is the fact he rejected the opportunity to link up with Thomas Frank much sooner instead.

It has already been a bizarre Premier League spell for a player who’ll probably end this season lifting the World Cup as England’s starting striker.

Nathan Ake (£41m, Bournemouth to Manchester City, 2020)

A combination of injuries, intense competition for places and the typical Pep Guardiola bedding-in process has restricted Ake to 168 appearances for Manchester City heading into the final months of his sixth season.

It isn’t bad going, especially with 10 trophies in return and a Bournemouth relegation on his CV. And at least Manchester City avoided embarrassing themselves like Arsenal.

Ryan Sessegnon (£25m, Fulham to Spurs, 2019)

The Blip (also known as the Decimation and the Snap) is a fictional major event and period of time depicted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The Blip began in 2018[a] when Thanos, wielding all six Infinity Stones in the Infinity Gauntlet, exterminated half of all living things in the universe, chosen at random, with the snap of his fingers. The Blip ended five years later, on October 17, 2023,[a][1] when the Avengers utilized time travel to collect the Infinity Stones from prior points in the timeline and, with a second snap by Avengers member Bruce Banner, restored all those previously killed by Thanos.

Ryan Sessegnon moving to Spurs (also known as Daniel Levy somehow making Mauricio Pochettino’s ‘painful rebuild’ excruciatingly worse) was a non-fictional major event of similarly disastrous, world-altering proportions which lasted precisely as long and exterminated half of his career before he returned to Fulham and became quite good again.

Romeo Lavia (£53m, Southampton to Chelsea, 2023)

Almost three years into his Chelsea career, it could be argued that Lavia’s peak at Stamford Bridge came when his rejection of Liverpool caused record levels of head loss on Merseyside.

The Belgian has had a devastating time with injuries since. Lavia was only with Southampton for one season but played 34 times for the Saints, compared to his 30 appearances at Chelsea.

He obviously has a contract until 2030 anyway so should be okay under whoever replaces the replacement for Liam Rosenior’s replacement.

Mateus Fernandes (£38m, Southampton to West Ham, 2025)

It can only be assumed that Fernandes has employed an agency run by Nathan Blake and Hermann Hreidarsson to oversee his career.

The Portuguese’s move to West Ham was, in fairness, far less obviously doomed than the switch to Southampton he made a year before. But for such a talented young player to be adjacent to Premier League relegation in successive seasons while other overperforming stars are given a leg-up the ladder seems unjust.

On the other hand, Fernandes might move to Real Madrid for £20m if the Hammers go down so fair enough.

Omari Hutchinson (£37.5m, Ipswich to Nottingham Forest, 2025)

The 22-year-old pretended that the “pathway” at Chelsea was clearer upon his defection from Arsenal, before finally getting his big break at Ipswich.

An excellent year in the Championship was followed by far leaner months in the Premier League, and a sense that he would benefit from more second-tier seasoning away from the spotlight.

Yet he bought what Nottingham Forest were selling – despite their manager’s protestations – and has subsequently struggled to establish himself at a particularly unstable City Ground.

James Maddison (£40m, Leicester to Spurs, 2023)

When Leicester signed Maddison from Norwich for around £24m in summer 2018, it was the most expensive sale ever made by a non-relegated Championship club.

In the eight years since he has transferred again for almost twice as much, won the FA Cup and Europa League, been capped by England, recorded chronological Premier League finishes of 9th, 5th, 5th, 8th, 18th, 5th and 17th, missed the entire current season for the club in 16th, and been the main man at countless roast dinners.

Harvey Barnes (£38m, Leicester to Newcastle, 2023)

Only Jermain Defoe (15 for Sunderland, 2016/17), Fabrizio Ravanelli (17 for Middlesbrough, 1996/97), Yakubu (17 for Blackburn, 2011/12), Charlie Austin (18 for QPR, 2014/15) and Andy Johnson (21 for Crystal Palace, 2004/05) have scored more goals in a Premier League relegation season than the 13 Barnes mustered in vain for Leicester in 2022/23.

It was not an entirely wasted effort; Newcastle liked what they saw and Barnes ranks a respectable seventh for combined goals and assists during Howe’s tenure.

Georginio Rutter (£40m, Leeds to Brighton, 2024)

It remains Brighton’s record signing, a £40m outlay on a player with fewer than half the goals of Daniel James in his only full season with Leeds.

The Seagulls did not sign Rutter for his prolific goalscoring potential, which is good because he is yet to pass Shane Duffy (seven) on Brighton’s all-time Premier League top scorers list.

Even in terms of assists he is still level with Dale Stephens on five in 51 games. Rutter is basically a younger, worse and considerably more expensive Danny Welbeck.