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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”.
A pattern of big sales
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.
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'He becomes a machine'
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.
That was Vipotnik's first in Wales following his move from Bordeaux, with Swansea landing him on a free transfer thanks to the French club’s financial collapse.
Swansea have had plenty of failures in the transfer market in recent years, but the Vipotnik move looks extremely shrewd now.
The club's hierarchy will also be relieved that they opted not to sell – in the end – amid serious interest in what would have been a cut-price deal last summer.
The fact that Vipotnik agreed an improved contract in March, meanwhile, strengthens Swansea’s hand going into the summer transfer window.
Vipotnik's all-round contribution has improved during this campaign, though his goal tally is key to speculation over his future.
"A striker lives for goals so we are really happy for him," Matos said in the wake of Swansea’s weekend draw at Norwich, when Vipotnik scored from the spot.
"Doing what he does [in terms of goalscoring] and [also] understanding that if he adds the pressing and counter-pressing to his game, he becomes a machine. I think that's what he is doing now."
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Who might want to sign Vipotnik?
Various clubs on the Continent were keen on Vipotnik last summer, while there was more interest in the former Maribor player during the mid-season window.
Recent reports in Portugal claimed Sporting and Jose Mourinho's Benfica are both considering summer bids for Vipotnik, who has also been linked with clubs at the top end of the Championship as well as the lower reaches of the Premier League.
For his part, Vipotnik acknowledged in an interview with BBC Sport Wales earlier this month that the English top flight is his “goal”.
"I would like to play one day in the Premier League, [whether that is] with Swansea or with another club, God will decide," he said.
Swansea, whose best hope this season is to finish in the Championship’s top 10, will wait to see what concrete interest emerges when the transfer window opens in mid-June.
Nothing is certain yet, but it would not be a shock should Charlton's visit prove to be Viptonik's Swansea farewell.
