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Mitrovic, Gayle and others too good for Championship but not good enough for Premier League

The tale of the brilliant Championship striker who wasn't good enough for the Premier League is a familiar one, and there are plenty of recent examples.

It's hard to ignore the superb goalscoring exploits of Aleksandar Mitrovic for Fulham this season. At the time of writing, he is scoring at a rate greater than a goal a game for the table-topping Cottagers.

However brilliant he has been, though, Mitrovic has a reputation in football. He is known as the latest in a long line of strikers who have regularly torn up the Championship yet failed to prove they are good enough for the Premier League.
So, starting with Mitrovic, let's have a look at other players who have also trodden that path.

Aleksandar Mitrovic

Newcastle spent big money to bring Mitrovic to the Premier League in 2015, but it was an immediate disaster.
The Serbian managed just nine goals in 34 games as the Magpies were relegated. It didn't actually get much better for him in the Championship either, with him scoring even fewer goals the following year.
You might be forgiven for thinking it was Newcastle that was the problem for Mitrovic, not the level at this point.
He immediately started scoring for Fulham, firing them to promotion during an initial loan spell with them. He joined them permanently the following season for another crack at the Premier League and scored 11 goals in 37 games as the Cottages got relegated.
Mitrovic picked up where he left off again in the second tier, scoring 26 goals in 40 games as Fulham were promoted again. His confidence was high and he was right in his peak. Surely this was the time he made the step up to the Premier League? A paltry three goals in 27 games says otherwise.
This season he is in better form than ever before and is looking a good bet to break the goalscoring record for a single Championship season - but that's not the level at which he needs to prove himself.

Billy Sharp

If you are looking for strikers who are brilliant in the Championship yet unable to step up a level, it makes sense to start at the top of the record books.
Sharp scored his 122nd Championship goal at the end of January to take the record from David Nugent, and for that to happen two things have to happen: You have to be a consistent goalscorer over a number of years, yet not good enough to have a Premier League club take a chance on you.

He initially failed at Sheffield United and had to prove himself in the second tier of English football at Doncaster. Forty goals in 82 matches, followed by nine in just 15 games for Southampton showed just how good Sharp was, though.

However, after Southampton were promoted they did not give him a chance to step up with them, instead loaning him back to the Championship.

He finally got his shot at the Premier League with Sheffield United, who he rejoined for a second spell in 2015. He played 41 games at the top level across two seasons, and could only manage six games.
A shame, but there's nothing wrong with being a Championship legend.

David Nugent

There is little doubt that David Nugent was a consistent goalscoring force in the Championship.
Nugent was hot property after scoring 37 goals in 107 games for Preston between 2004 and 2007. It earned him an England call-up and a move to the Premier League with Portsmouth.
That step-up proved far too much for him though, with Nugent managing a pretty pathetic three goals in 34 Premier League games for Pompey.
He got another chance with a loan spell at Burnley, but again struggled, scoring just six goals in 30 Premier League games in 2009/10.
Nugent then had to try to re-establish himself in the Championship at Leicester, and 49 goals in 130 games showed he had not lost his touch at that level. His goals helped Leicester get promoted, but five goals in 29 Premier League games showed he was never going to make the grade.

He played in the Premier League as recently as 2016 for Middlesbrough, but 14 goals in best part of 100 games at that level told its own story.

Guy Whittingham

If Mitrovic is to break the record for amount of Championship goals in a season, then it is Whittingham that he will dethrone.

Whittingham hit extraordinary goalscoring form for Portsmouth in 1992/93, hitting 42 league goals in just 46 games.

In total he scored 88 goals for Pompey in 160 games, and it came as little surprise when the Premier League came calling.

First it was Aston Villa who took a chance on him, although they had a very settled side at that time full of attacking talent, and Whittingham didn't get a lot of opportunities. In his single season at Villa Park, he scored just five goals.

Sheffield Wednesday gave him more opportunities at the top level, though, and he hung around there for four seasons. However, the goals still didn't really come. By the time he left in late 1997, he had scored a total of 27 goals in five seasons in the Premier League.
Curiously, he never really hit great goalscoring heights again - except a loan spell back at Portsmouth in 1999 that saw him net seven goals in just nine matches.

Dwight Gayle

Dwight Gayle is 32 years old now and he has spent more seasons in the Premier League than he has in the Championship.

Considering he only has 26 Premier League goals to his name for Crystal Palace and Newcastle across seven seasons, the fact he remains at that level is a bit of a surprise.

By comparison, Gayle has played just three seasons in the championship and has 59 goals in 100 games for Peterborough, Newcastle and West Brom.
A lot of the issue with Gayle probably comes down to wages. He signed a big contract at Newcastle in 2016 when he arrived from Crystal Palace. That made him a Championship level player on Premier League wages, so it was tough for clubs in the second tier to finance a deal for him.
That said, it also makes you question the player's hunger. Ultimately Gayle could have been a goalscoring hero for almost any Championship side he wanted, but he preferred to sit on a Premier League bench.

Michael Chopra

There is a caveat that needs to be stressed at the very start when it comes to Michael Chopra: It was probably a gambling addiction that held him back, not a lack of ability to make it in the Premier League.
Chopra dreamed of making it with his boyhood club Newcastle, but he was a youngster there during the Alan Shearer days, so his chances there were always going to be limited although he did make a few appearances here and there.
After a fine season on loan with Barnsley in League One, Chopra moved to Cardiff City and really proved himself at Championship level, bagging 22 goals in just 42 games.

That earned him a move back to the north East to Sunderland, but just eight goals in 39 games didn't make good reading in the record books.

His struggles with gambling then kicked in and he never got another chance at Premier League level, although he continued to prove himself a top goal getter in the Championship in a second spell at Cardiff and then Ipswich.
Chopra's final career numbers showed he was a solid 1-in-3 striker in the Championship (74 goals in 238 games), but wildly out of his depth in the Premier League.

Rob Earnshaw

Rob Earnshaw was an interesting player. He is the only player to have scored a hat-trick in the Premier League, all three divisions of the Football League, the League Cup, the FA Cup, and in international football.
Earnshaw made his name for Cardiff, scoring through the Leagues as they climbed to the Championship. After plundering 21 Championship goals in 46 games in 2003/4, Earnshaw earned a move to the Premier League with West Brom.

His first season at the top level was respectable too, with the Zambian-born Welshman scoring 11 Premier League goals. However, from the start of the 2005/06 season, he scored just two goals at that level in 34 games for West Brom and Derby.

He continued to be prolific in the Championship, though. An impressive 45 game-spell with Norwich produced 27 goals and he matched that total for Nottingham Forest, albeit from 80 games.
Earnshaw's final career statistics were 90 goals in 2016 Championship games, but just 13 in 65 in the Premier League.

Teemu Pukki

Teemu Pukki came to this particular party quite late in his career and is only currently midway through his fourth season in English football.
Those four seasons have been split between the Championship and the Premier League and the contrast is startling.

His 84 Championship games have produced 55 goals, while he currently has 17 Premier League goals in 60 games.

You could say that total is at least respectable, and he has only played for Norwich, who are perpetual Premier League strugglers.
That paints its own picture, though, and ultimately being the best player for a yo-yo team shows your true level is somewhere between the two divisions.

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