We have had a range of emerging talents, classic EFL cult heroes and consistent performers throughout our ’72 of the 72’ and the next man falls into the final two categories.
It's certainly been no easy task, but - just to clarify - our '72' is less a roll call of the best footballers in the EFL and more a tribute to those players who have enjoyed the most memorable seasons while racking up the most impressive stats.
Whatever the criteria, we're confident in our selections of the most outstanding players through the Championship, League One, and League Two and welcome any debate on the subject!
Into the top 14 of our list we turn our attention to the League One champions and their skipper, the ever reliable Marlon Pack.
In recent weeks, Marlon Pack has lived out a boyhood dream of captaining his hometown club that he supported growing up to a league title and being carried on the pitch by his own people.
Portsmouth have had a magnificent season as League One champions. By far and away the most assured, difficult to play against and cohesive team in the division with an abundance of attacking talent.
The foundation of their impressive play and all of their good work has pretty much been built around their focal point in the centre of midfield, Marlon Pack.
The 33-year-old, who rejoined Portsmouth, who he had left in 2011 at the age of 20, in the summer of 2022 on a free transfer from Cardiff City, has been instrumental to Pompey’s promotion charge.
Only five players in the entire league managed more assists than Pack (9) this season with Abu Kamara (10) the only Portsmouth player with more.
Of the players that have had a better passing success rate than Pack this season, only two of them managed over 1000 minutes and Pack managed way more than a 1000 minutes more than the next highest.
With 1.7 key passes per game, he was also the most creative of Portsmouth’s array of talented players in that aspect but was also fourth for most tackles per game, showing his quality in both areas of the game.
With Championship experience at both Bristol City and Cardiff City under his belt, he will be essential for Pompey as they move up a division and attempt to establish themselves back in the second-tier.
14: Macaulay Langstaff 15: Ephron Mason-Clark 16: Dan Kemp
17: Joe Taylor 18: Eiran Cashin 19: Ali Al-Hamadi 20: Jack Clarke
21: Isaac Olaofe 22: Carl Piergiani 23: Jaden Philogene 24: Alfie May
25: Will Evans 26: Jamie Reid 27: Morgan Whittaker
28: Conor Chaplin 29: George Thomason 30: Mickey Demetriou
31: Stephy Mavididi 32: Marc Leonard 33: Josh Sheehan
34: Matt Smith 35: Kwame Poku 36: Illan Meslier 37: Aden Flint
38: Ronnie Edwards 39: Josh Sargent 40: Alex Gilbey 41: Ben Sheaf
42: Jobe Bellingham 43: Devante Cole 44: Jacob Greaves 45: Paddy Lane
46: Herbie Kane 47: Dan James 48: Archie Collins 49: Karamoko Dembele
50: Haji Wright 51: Dan Crowley 52: Cameron Brannagan 53: Aaron Collins
54: Andy Cook 55: Connor Shaughnessy 56: Jannik Vestergaard
57: Willy Gnonto 58: Ellis Simms 59: Charlie Hughes 60: Fatawu Isshaku
61: Sam Hoskins 62: Paul Mullin 63: Chris Martin 64: Omari Hutchinson
65: Isaac Hutchinson 66: Sam Tickle 67: Ben Hinchcliffe 68: Michał Helik
69: Lewis Wing 70: Rob Apter 71: Kyle Walker-Peters 72: Alex Palmer
