The future of Zan Vipotnik looks set to be the transfer storyline of the summer at Swansea City.
While the ideal scenario for the Welsh side might be to keep their star striker, there is an understanding that forward players who shine in the Championship but do not win promotion tend to change clubs.
The good news for Swansea, of course, is that those players tend to move for hefty transfer fees.
Should teams wish to negotiate a transfer fee for Vipotnik, 24, during the upcoming close season, the Swans can point to some of the big Championship departures in recent seasons.
Think Emmanuel Latte Lath, for example, who left Middlesbrough for Atlanta United for £22.5m in February last year, or Viktor Gyokeres, whose 2023 move from Coventry City to Sporting CP was worth a reported £20m.
As head coach Vitor Matos pointed out earlier this month, if Swansea are to sell Vipotnik, they will only do so for "proper money".
With 23 league goals to his name this season – six more than the next best in the division, Haji Wright – Vipotnik has all but secured the Championship golden boot heading into Saturday's final-day meeting with Charlton Athletic.
A glance at recent campaigns in the second tier shows a clear pattern when it comes to the leading scorers in the division – unless they are part of a promotion-winning side, they often move on.
Joel Piroe (19 goals) was last season's top marksman in the Championship, but he remains at Leeds after they won the title.
Josh Brownhill (18 goals) also won promotion at Burnley, yet he left for Saudi Arabia with his Turf Moor contract up.
Winger Borja Sainz, who scored 18 league goals for Norwich in 2024-25, joined Porto for more than £14m, while 15-goal Canaries forward Josh Sargent eventually left Carrow Road for Toronto FC in February this year for £20m-plus.
Sammie Szmodics won the second-tier golden boot in 2023-24, when he scored 27 times for Blackburn Rovers.
He was 28 – four years older than Vipotnik – when he was sold to Ipswich Town for £9m plus add-ons that summer.
Adam Armstrong (21 goals) was next in the scoring charts, and helped Southampton win promotion courtesy of a play-off final win over Leeds United.
After defeat at Wembley, Leeds sold 19-goal Crysencio Summerville – who was 22 at the time - to West Ham for £25m-plus.
Latte Lath scored 16 Boro goals in that campaign, then managed another 11 in the first half of 2024-25 before he left for the USA aged 26.
There was another big-money exit from the Riverside at the end of 2022-23, with Chuba Akpom – at the age of 27 and with only a year to run on his contract – sold to Ajax in a deal worth up to £12.2m on the back of a sparkling Championship campaign which brought 28 goals.
Gyokeres also moved on in that summer, after defeat in the play-offs, with Coventry receiving an eye-catching fee despite the fact that the then 25-year-old was heading into the final year of his Sky Blues deal.
Vipotnik landmark another reminder of Swansea's wise move
Vipotnik has scored 25 Swansea goals in all competitions this season, a huge step forward after he netted only seven times during the previous campaign.