Fletcher heading north

  • by Staff Writer
  • Friday, 28th July 2017

Ashley Fletcher has completed a £6.5million move to Championship side Middlesbrough.

The 21-year-old striker, who cost the Hammers just £1million when moving from Manchester United last summer has signed a four-year contract with 'Boro and becomes the second Hammer to move to Teeside this summer, following Darren Randolph's £5million switch.




Having barely played for Slaven Bilic's first team last season, Fletcher's opportunities at West Ham were further limited by the recent arrival of Javier Hernandes - something that persuaded him to drop down a division and join Garry Monk's new-look side.

"We got a fantastic offer for Ashley," revealed Hammers boss Bilic. "Ideally I wanted to help him with a different kind of scenario, but at the end of the day the offer was so good for the club and for him personally.




"I spoke to him on Wednesday night and I told him to be proud of the step that he made since coming to West Ham last year to being a player that a lot of clubs from the Championship are asking for.

"To make such a big step is a big bonus for him and a big thing for him. He’s very young, very promising, a great lad and a great trainer, so he can improve a lot."

Having been relegated from the Premier League last season, Monk appears intent on bringing his side back into the top flight at the earliest opportunity - with Fletcher becoming his SIXTH signing of pre-season, following Assombalonga, Martin Braithwaite, Cyrus Christie, Jonny Howson and Randolph.




For West Ham, Fletcher's departure indicates further good business for the club as they attempt to remove last season's 'dead wood'; he joins Havard Nordtveit (£4million), Enner Valencia (£7million) and Randolph (£5million) on the list of outgoing players for whom a fee was received this summer.

The club have also released or freed a number of other fringe first team players, such as George Dobson (Sparta Rotterdam), Stephen Hendrie (Southend Utd) and Raphael Spiegel (Boavista) as Bilic attempts to revamp his side ahead of the 2017/18 season.

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