It could be argued that the gap between the Championship and the Premier League is becoming smaller every season. Players such as Rickie Lambert and Charlie Austin made the transition to the top flight seamlessly, with the latter even earning himself an England call-up.
The Championship is full of talented players and natural goalscorers that can be Premier League stars in the future. Here are FOUR Championship strikers that the FFC Towers are tipping to be ready for a move in the summer:
Callum Wilson
Bournemouth’s 22-year-old striker has been an excellent acquisition since singing from Coventry for £3 million last summer. The England under-21 international has scored 17 times for the Cherries – 14 coming in the league – and has looked every bit of a potentially top striker in the years to come. Last season was his breakthrough campaign, netting 21 times in 37 league matches for Coventry, and earning himself a place in the PFA League One team of the year.
Wilson has plenty of attributes that make him an exciting prospect; bundles of pace to beat defenders, a tremendous work rate and – most importantly – a superb finishing ability. Although it’s been a fast rise for Wilson, he has shown that he more than belongs at this level and could well be a Premier League player with Bournemouth, or another side, come August.
Britt Assombalonga
The 22-year-old was snapped up by Nottingham Forest and has made the move up from League One superbly well. His performances last season for Peterborough were enough to win him a place in the team of the year as he scored 23 times. This season he has 14 goals to him name in a Forest team that have been struggling as of late.
As with Wilson, Assombalonga has made the step up the leagues extremely quickly and although the Premier League is represents a different kind of challenge, natural goalscorers like himself are few and far between nowadays. He seems as though he has all the tools to succeed, being a big and strong centre-forward with tremendous pace. A player that loves to score goals and can do so at will, he is another one on this list that has the potential to make it to the 'promised land'.
Troy Deeney
The 26-year-old Deeney has been a fantastic player for Watford since joining in 2010 from Walsall. In 2012/13 his 20 goals helped Watford reach the play-off final, including the infamous goal against Leicester in the semi-final. Last season he struck 24 Championship goals which caught the attention of numerous Premier League teams. He is well on his way to another prolific season with his 11th goal coming just past the mid-way stage in the season.
A big, strong and powerful striker; Deeney is always a threat to opposing defenders. A player who never seems to stop running, Deeny has the ability to score from long range or net a typical poacher's finish. Deeney is already highly-rated among a number of Premier League clubs and he has proven all he can at this level.
Jordan Rhodes
The 25-year-old Scottish international has been a natural goalscorer throughout his whole career. He signed for Huddersfield from Ipswich in 2009, and at just 19, was already banging in the goals. In his first season for Huddersfield, he scored an impressive 19 times as a youngster in League One. His real breakthrough season came in the 2011/12 season where his 38 goals helped Huddersfield secure promotion to the Championship.
At the end of the season, he moved to Blackburn for £8 million and has had two prolific seasons since. In his first campaign at Blackburn he scored 27 times and last season added 25 goals to his tally. This time round he hasn’t been as prolific for the Scot, but as far as goalscorers go, they don’t come more natural than Rhodes.
The Daily Mail have linked the Blackburn striker with a move to West Ham in the past, but The Telegraph have more recently tipped Swansea City as the club most likely to secure Rhodes' services. Either way, it would appear the interest in the Scot is high, and with 145 leagues goals to his name in 274 appearences, it's not hard to see why.