As Viktor Gyokeres, Gustavo Hamer and Chiedozie Ogbene are proving, the EFL can feature talent capable of playing at a higher level.
All were playing in the Championship last season but Gyokeres has swapped Coventry City for Sporting Lisbon, his former team-mate Hamer went to Sheffield United and Ogbene moved from Rotherham to Premier League new boys Luton Town.
With them all catching the eye in their respective top divisions, we asked our EFL experts to name who they believe has been the standout performer this season so far.
There were stipulations, however: our writers were not allowed to pick a player they report on or from a club they support — and they had to have watched them in the flesh this season…
Lessons were learnt by those who mocked Birmingham City for their decision to retire the No 22 shirt following Jude Bellingham’s move to Borussia Dortmund. How we laughed at the premature nature of such a decision.
Birmingham knew. Perhaps it’s doubling down because of this, but it’s hard to deny the similarities between Jude and younger brother Jobe.
Jobe, 18, has now amassed 45 appearances, first at Birmingham and now at Sunderland, in the notoriously physical Championship. He has been operating in a more advanced role, similar to Jude at Real Madrid, and looks to have all the attributes to score goals.
Bellingham the younger on the ball for Sunderland (Michael Driver/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Mature beyond his years and a physical specimen, from the outside it looks as though Sunderland have done an incredibly shrewd bit of business in signing him for a fee that could rise to £2.5million ($3.2m).
Is he the best player in the Championship right now? Technically, no. Will he go on to be one of the best players the league has produced? Quite possibly.
Andrew Pigott
Up until suffering a nasty hamstring injury that required surgery, Stockport County’s Louie Barry had been lighting up the basement division.
On loan from Aston Villa, the 20-year-old had managed 11 goal contributions in 15 appearances and seemed capable of opening up most League Two defences.
Since his grade-four rupture, however, others have stepped up to catch the eye, with perhaps the biggest stir right now surrounding Al-Hamadi, AFC Wimbledon’s Iraq international striker.
Al-Hamadi represents Iraq, his country of birth, but was raised in Toxteth, Liverpool (HUSSEIN FALEH/AFP via Getty Images)
He’s been in fine form for club and country, and it would be a major surprise if the Dons’ resolve is not tested come the January transfer window. Al-Hamadi, with 11 league goals and five assists for fast-improving Wimbledon, seems destined for a higher level.
Wycombe, who let Al-Hamadi move to south-west London last season but who retain a sell-on fee, will be watching with interest.
Richard Sutcliffe
One of the ways to look at this is to think about which Championship players are likely to attract offers from the Premier League. Top-flight clubs tend to be quite picky about who and what they take from the second tier, primarily because a lot of footballers find the jump in level either difficult or beyond them.
Four years ago, when Clarke left Leeds United for Tottenham Hotspur, there was a fair amount of doubt on that front: was he Premier League quality and would he get much of a game? But now, having quit Spurs for Sunderland and cut his teeth a little more in the EFL, he is well worth a proper chance in the Premier League — and you would put money on him making a go of it with the right club and coach.
Clarke has blossomed at Sunderland after his move from Tottenham (Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
The winger Leeds sold to Spurs was a fairly raw academy product. These days, Clarke looks hardened and wiser, his pace still there, his end product excellent and his in-game intelligence getting better. It’s not like looking at a different footballer altogether; more like looking at one who has grown up. He can dictate the flow of games, he can beat a man easily and a tally of 10 goals shows him to be a forward who can finish.
Across the division, the best Championship player is starting to look like Crysencio Summerville. But outside of Leeds, Clarke has more appeal than most. And the Premier League will probably feel the same.
Phil Hay
Ephron Mason-Clark — Peterborough United
If there’s such a thing as a conveyor belt of talent in League One, then it lives at London Road, Peterborough. From Jack Marriott to Ivan Toney to Sammie Szmodics, the Posh export hits just keep on coming — and Ephron Mason-Clark looks certain to join them at some point in the future.
After a more-than-respectable first season with Peterborough (nine goals, six assists), attacker Mason-Clark has stepped up a level in 2023-24 (seven goals and five assists already) and is one of the main reasons why Darren Ferguson’s side have barged their way into the automatic promotion reckoning.
Mason-Clark is the latest gem from Peterborough’s production line (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
In a division that has more than its fair share of wide threats, Mason-Clark’s progressive running with the ball still stands out. Per Opta, he has made 42 chance-creating carries this season, which have resulted in three goals, two assists and 26 shots. He is also one of only three players in League One who is creating more than two goalscoring chances per 90 right now.
The numbers look good, he looks good, and his future prospects do too.
Duncan Alexander
The most talented player in the Championship’s most dominant team? Probably. Dewsbury-Hall has no place at this level and the opening four months of this season have indicated he has no wish to stick around.
The 25-year-old midfielder can count himself unfortunate not to have got a summer move away from Leicester City following the club’s relegation last season, but the hometown boy has wasted little time sharpening his influence under Enzo Maresca.
The numbers tell you that. Seven goals and nine assists from midfield are a measure of his importance to Leicester this season, driving forward and picking the right pass. The dribbles, the give-and-goes. Some of those finishes, too, have been tremendous.
Dewsbury-Hall has been worthy of the hype for Leicester this season (Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
Dewsbury-Hall retains a lovely presence on the ball and there is now a maturity that separates him from the technically gifted youngster who impressed on loan with Luton Town when last in the Championship three years ago.
There will be Premier League clubs that have charted Dewsbury-Hall’s progress this season, wondering if they made a mistake in leaving him be. The January transfer window brings threats to Leicester but their academy product looks too sure of finding his own path back to the top-flight now. A grand name, a grand player.
Philip Buckingham
With the way Ipswich are playing, quite a few of their players are in with a shout of being the best in the EFL. It is some testament to Davis’ importance in a squad featuring Conor Chaplin, Massimo Luongo and Wes Burns that he stands out as an exciting and seriously effective outlet in a team that is scoring goals for fun towards the top of the Championship.
An attack-minded modern full-back is always going to thrive in Kieran McKenna’s team with their tendency to get the ball forward fast and with plenty of players in support. But Davis has gone from strength to strength after an impressive League One campaign in which he contributed 14 assists as Ipswich scored 101 goals on the way to promotion last season.
(Stephen Pond/Getty Images)
Already on nine assists this term, the 23-year-old looks likely to break his tally from last year and has shown he has the potential to thrive at the top level — he, like Ipswich, has stepped up a division with ease.
Is he the player most likely to grab all the headlines? Possibly not. But anyone paying attention knows that Davis is one of the best in the division. And he will not be in it long if Ipswich can keep up their good form.
Nancy Froston
Leicester manager Enzo Maresca has done everything on his own terms and has been totally uncompromising about how he wants his team to play.
Occasionally, though, he adapts in a bid to nullify a particular opponent. He did it when Sunderland and Clarke came to King Power Stadium, switching the athletic James Justin over to right-back to handle his threat.
If it wasn’t for the double jeopardy of Dan James on the other flank, he would have done the same when Leeds United came to Leicester, solely to handle Summerville.
He might have wished he had done. The Dutchman was a thorn in Leicester’s side as Leeds won 1-0. Summerville was irrepressible as Leeds carried out a masterclass of transitional football, attacking the spaces vacated by Ricardo Pereira.
Summerville’s goals-per-game ratio is better than one in every two for Leeds in the league this season (George Tewkesbury/PA Images via Getty Images)
The 22-year-old winger might not have scored that night but he has done so 10 times in 19 league games and provided six assists. He looks every inch a Premier League player — and Leeds will know that if they don’t get back up this season, they may have a fight on their hands to keep such a talent.
Rob Tanner
When I first revealed who I’d nominate for this, it was labelled “a boring choice”. Maybe that’s fair, but it’s the obvious one.
Leicester are the best team in the EFL by a distance. Their defensive record is remarkably strong: 16 goals conceded in 22 games, or a goal conceded every 123 minutes.
But their imperious defence emanates from their control of possession and matches, which is where Harry Winks comes in. He is the definition of a Premier League player operating in the Championship. A summer signing from Tottenham Hotspur that would have made the rest of the second tier feel a bit more deflated about their own promotion chances.
Winks looks a class apart in the Championship (Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
Only centre-back and team-mate Jannik Vestergaard (2,379) has had more touches of the ball in the Championship this season than the 27-year-old midfielder (2,092). It’s the same duo in the same order leading in passes completed, while Winks averages a pass-completion rate of 94 per cent.
“It is probably not correct to say he is ‘the main player’, but from day one he is one of the most important players in the way we want to play,” said Leicester boss Maresca.
“That is why I pushed so hard during the summer to get him.”
He is the facilitator, the controller, and he is taking his new club back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
Michael Bailey
What a season it’s been for Rowe, whose star is shining brightly at the club he first joined almost a decade ago.
After an injury-disrupted campaign last season, a fully fit Rowe has taken the Championship by storm in a team bobbing in the ocean of mid-table.
He has scored 10 goals, including two in his first East Anglian derby last weekend. Before the match, he bullishly tweeted “bring on the f***ing derby”. A double later, it was fair to say he had backed this up and delivered.
🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️ https://t.co/lHzWKEfa3q
— Jonathan Rowe (@Jonathanrowe__) December 16, 2023
With Rowe cooking and classy Brazilian Gabriel Sara pulling the strings from midfield, David Wagner’s side are slowly starting to click ahead of the busy Christmas period.
Rowe’s impressive performances on the wing this season caught the eye of England Under-21 manager Lee Carsley. He scored on his debut in October in the 9-1 hammering of Serbia.
The 20-year-old fan favourite, a product of the academy after joining from AFC Wembley aged 11, is contracted until June 2025. Norwich, however, do hold an option to extend for another 12 months.
Rowe’s goals have caught the eye of several Premier League clubs who are monitoring his progress with interest. Watch this space.
Tom Burrows
(Top image: Davis, Al-Hamadi, Bellingham. Photos: Getty Images)
