Inevitably, after winning promotion, higher-up suitors will be tempted to have a look at your best talents.
Derby County will wait with bated breath over whether they will be able to keep all their top stars together from their League One promotion story for the jump-up to the Championship, with Eiran Cashin the obvious name who could well now be linked with a move away from Pride Park.
Linked with a move all the way up to the Premier League in the past, Cashin's virtually ever-present nature in the third tier – with 52 games amassed in all competitions – means he's maturing at a rapid speed, potentially ready for a move up to the top-flight as a result.
Derby will want a significant amount of money to part ways with any of their group currently, however, which worked in their favour previously when offloading this former star in 2001 for a sizeable amount who then flopped in his new surroundings.
Seth Johnson's time at Derby
Seth Johnson will go down as a cherished player from Derby yesteryear when Rams supporters look back, with the combative midfielder amassing 143 appearances in total over two stints at Pride Park.
His first spell was his most impactful, which would later lead to a major move away from Derbyshire, with two goals and five assists managed from 71 games.
Scoring this header (above) against Wimbledon to salvage a point in his debut season – which saw the Rams finish just above the relegation zone in the top flight – Johnson would even go on to be capped by England remarkably during this spell of his career.
Leeds must have thought gambling on the no-nonsense midfield man, who accumulated a ridiculous 40 yellow cards in total when donning a Rams strip, was going to pay off at the start of the millennium with a high £7m bid accepted for his services.
It would end up being an injury-ravaged portion of the now retired 45-year-old's career at Elland Road in a move that should've catapulted him to stardom, with his career halting prematurely anyway at just 28 years of age when moving back to Derby owing to these recurring fitness issues.
The Rams would have felt for one of their ex-stars moving on having such a nightmare, but when assessing TotallyMoney's Transfer Index, Derby would feel some satisfaction regardless for how much they managed to get out of Leeds at the time.
Totally Money have taken the 100 most expensive transfers of all time across each season since 1992 in Europe's top five leagues. Armed with plenty of historical financial data they have calculated what footballers of yesteryear would be worth in the present day after taking into account the remarkable rate of inflation.
Seth Johnson's transfer value in 2024
Going on to make just 59 appearances for the Whites over four seasons, his hefty £7m price tag at the time already makes the move a flop.
However, if the same disastrous move went through today, Johnson would have cost Leeds an eye-watering £23m as per TotallyMoney.
To further add context, that would make Johnson an even more expensive buy than both Joel Piroe and Ethan Ampadu combined in Daniel Farke's current Leeds squad.
Season
Games played
Goals
Assists
2004/05
6
1
0
2003/04
26
2
5
2002/03
13
1
0
2001/02
14
0
1
Sourced by Transfermarkt
With his best appearances total for a season coming in at a low 26 at Elland Road, Leeds would have been more than happy, if a little hacked off at paying £7m, to part ways with Johnson for him to return back to Pride Park for a homecoming in 2005 on a free transfer.
Bowing out by helping the Rams move up to the Premier League in his final ever career game, before a knee injury saw his early retirement come to fruition, Derby supporters will just hope there's plenty more to come from their current crop of talent who won't just exit in the summer.
Market Movers
Football FanCast's Market Movers series explores the changing landscape of the modern transfer market. How much is your club's star player or biggest flop worth today?