Langstaff, Hirakawa, Byers – the latest 38 transfers in the EFL

NTT20's Summer Transfer Bulletin brings you every signing in the EFL, in detail, in your inbox, every Monday and Thursday.

Ali, George & David Cameron Walker have been covering England all summer long. They were in Dortmund last night. Can someone check on them? Can anyone spot the cryptic ‘It’s Coming Home’ Easter egg? Can you please get on with EFL transfers? …Yes, yes, let’s do this.

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The Summer Transfer Bulletin is brought to you by Ali Maxwell, George Elek, Huw Davies, Sam Parry, Craig Bradley and Matt Watts. The introduction is by Matt Watts.

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“Goals win games”

There are so many factors that contribute to winning a football match. The tactical battle, players winning their individual duels and, dare we say it, falling on the right side of a bit of variance. While all of these factors are important, one thing will always be true: goals win games. One player who has scored more goals than most in recent years, and more than anyone else in England last season, is Millwall’s new No.17: Macaulay Langstaff.

“The goal doesn’t move”

Langstaff has scored 98 league goals across the last three seasons. For a bit of context, the striker’s new employers scored 45 goals in the Championship last time out, with only Sheffield Wednesday and Rotherham scoring fewer.

Some will say it’s a gamble to pay a reported fee of £700,000 for a striker unproven above League Two level, but isn’t every signing a gamble to some extent? Increasingly, clubs are paying for what they believe a player could do at the level, as opposed to what they have done at the level.

Langstaff hasn’t played in the Championship, nor League One but, to this point, he has taken every jump in his stride. Also, if the 27-year-old had moved to a League One club this summer and produced another 20- or even 30-goal season, then he probably would have moved out of the Lions’ price range. Just like attempting to beat the offside trap, timing is everything in the world of transfers. 

There’s also an argument that natural finishers will flourish at whatever level they play. Steve Bull. Ian Wright. Jamie Vardy. Of course, the opponents are better, the tempo is quicker and Langstaff will have to adapt, but the positions that he takes up, the runs that he makes and the different types of finishes that he attempts to execute won’t change.

The goal. Doesn’t. Move.

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