[SIGNED perm] Ashley Fletcher

Doesn't take much for the urethral sphincter to relax round here.

 

Source?

 

He is about to be one of Deeney's mates as he joins the list of strikers worse than Deeney we go out of our way to sign so the useless oaf can continue to start for us.

 

What website do you get that from?

Also, he looks almost more of a RW there than a CF.

 

Yep and it's all so typical. We need a list of approved bedwetting items.

Things you are allowed to wet the bed about:-

- Having to use an app to enter the stadium to avoid touting and the lending of a season ticket to your stupid Arsenal supporting kids/grandkids
- Being asked to move seats to create a better atmosphere at the games
- Changing the tired old dirge song from the 40s that the team come out to
- the quality of food from the kiosks
- queueing to get in
- the oversaturation of smartphones in today's society
- the idea of a new stadium so we don't have people living in one of the stands
- NFC

Things you can't wet the bed about:-

- team performances
- selling good players
- managerial appointments
- buying sh*t players year after year
- criticism of the owner and practices

Everyone got that straight? Obey the rules you ******s.

Trust in Gino, Fletch's going to get 20 this year and you'll all have to apologise. Once you've stopped moaning about the app thing. And NFC. Whatever it is.

 

While Troy is able to remain mates with Ivan because he sabotaged his move to us so he doesn't get shown up in training every day.

 

Exactly. Personally I think he'll be a better option than Gray and Success and is bound to be on less wages. If we end up shipping Gray and Success out then we've got a decent amount of space in the wage bill to play with.

 

He played his entire game down the right channel in that first game of the season against us.

IIRC he gave Wilmot a bit of a horrid game but did sweet **** all when he got past him.

 

He looks decent in that - good leap and fleet-footed.

I'd say the biggest question is whether the injuries he's had this season have taken much of a toll on the pace and nimbleness he shows there. If not and he can get back to similar form then he's clearly not the worst back-up squad option. At 25 he's still only just coming in to his prime as a striker as well; Ighalo had hardly scored much until he started going goal-crazy for us at the age of 26.

 

Very odd.

 

This would make sense. My reservation is we weren’t able to shift Gray, Deeney and Success because nobody will give them as good a contracts as we did. I’m not convinced putting another below par striker on a 5 year contract is the way out of this self inflicted mess. Just feels like the same old mistakes.

 

Yes that's true. In fact, here's my comment on Wilmot in the matchday thread for that game:

"Wilmot - 4 - the clear weak link at the back, got completely bossed by both Fletcher and Assombalonga, and his passing was poor."

I think Fletcher looked a better player than Assombalonga that game at least, but both of their end products were poor.

http://wfcforums.com/index.php?thre...sbrough-11-09-2020.57493/page-16#post-2897397

I wonder how many of the posters on here bemoaning the Fletcher signing have completely forgotten that though, and still somehow think this guy is bobbins but Wilmot should be given a chance in the Prem.

 

I was wondering if that game was the reason we thought he was worth signing. Seems like a pretty flimsy reason though if true.

 

You missed off 'queueing to get out' as well.

 

It's great to see the bedwetters triggered again so soon. Maybe Gino reads this forum and decided they had gone into their shell too much after weeks of great results and finally promotion.

Fantastic that this forum is back on track now, I can breathe easy again and also restart my internal battle about what side of the fence I should be on.

 

Here are his career stats:-

League One 20 apps, 5 goals, 4 assists
Premier League 16 apps, 0 goals, 0 assists
Championship 109 apps, 21 goals, 12 assists.

Most of his time has been spent at Championship level. His strike rate is 1 goal in 5 games and sets up a goal 1 in 9.

 

It really doesn't matter so much about being able to shift Gray and Troy this window as one way or another we know that at least we won't be stuck with their massive wages in the Championship ever again, and now we're back in the PL we can afford to take the hit on their final year should we be unable to move them. I suspect the club already have some idea as well as to whether there are any clubs willing to take them on (likely on a subsidised loan deal).

As for this bit, Fletcher would likely be on less than all three of those mentioned, for one thing. The other is that although it's a 5-year deal, it at least only runs out while he's still 30, meaning there's a chance he could still be a useful player towards the end of it.

 

Apps and any strike-rate and assist-rate derived directly from that is a crap metric when a lot of those appearances would have been made as a sub.

Have a gold-star for your belated and low-level attempt at contributing some relevant stats though.

 

I would agree with this if he was on huge wages, which I think we can all agree is unlikely. Worst case scenario he's not very good in the few games he plays for us, then we move him on for profit.

 

If he's on £10k a week and got a £100k signing on bonus - both of which I suspect are below where it is in reality - we'd have to get more than £600k for him to turn a profit after 1 season. And that assumes he's getting the same/better pay elsewhere and so isn't expecting us to pay a contribution for the remaining 4 years of his contract with us.

 

Fletcher was good enough for the Championship with Middlesbrough though. He was also only 21 while at West Ham.

 

That's entirely possible surely? Especially if we stay up?

 

One above average game doesnt make him good, just like that one sub-par game didn't make Wilmot awful. I am bemoaning Fletcher because I have watched quite a few games of his over the last few years and think he is sh*te.

If it was a 2 year deal like Perica I could accept it as a low risk gamble.if he was still 19-20 and had time to develop, I would accept it as a gamble.

As it is we have signed a sh*te 25 year old striker on a long term contract against all the evidence to date which suggests he is a lower mid table championship striker who would not be good enough to start in a promotion push even when we are relegated.

 

Not convinced that reflects either where the transfer market is at the moment, nor as per @nornironhorn that our track record suggests we're great at moving on duds.

It's the length of the contract that makes no logical sense to me. If we were signing him for a year or two I'd say that's an okayish deal. He's young enough to be worth a gamble I guess, though his injury record hardly inspires much hope. I just can't get beyond the fact we're apparently throwing five years at him.

 

That's fair enough, though he might be good enough for the bench for a promotion push even when we are relegated. We have to hope that's what the thinking is.

 

This post has just highlighted how much I miss that bloke who posted a subject related picture of Ainsley Harriott in every post and had him as an avatar.

 

I thought he played cricket.

 

It does when one of the statsw*nkers said he was. It's fact as soon as it's said. Remember.

 

I’ve calmed down this morning.

Apologies for going over the top last night. A case of very bad SAD with all this awful weather of late, and not thinking before writing.

Sorry all.

Weird signing if the plan is for him to start every match as our number 9. Can’t see that happening though, so it will be interesting to see how they plan to use him, and where he fits in. Who knows, we may finally be the club to unlock the undoubted potential he once had (Man Utd wanted to keep him, West Ham signed him, Boro paid good money for him etc)

As others have said, let’s see where we are when the season kicks off in terms of the squad. My biggest worry, as often expressed here, is we will struggle to score goals next year and this expected signing does little to allay those fears.

 

He is $hit.

 

I suspect he’s been long term scouted by the Pozzos, who may have considered going for him around the time Boro did or earlier.

If they liked him then, it could be that initial judgement hasn’t been revised or they believe he has untapped potential.

Nailed on for a first start in the Carabou Cup.

 

Former West Ham for which Duxbury has ties to, and his agent is Michael Ricketts who Deeney is good friends with. Interesting