[SIGNED perm] Ashley Fletcher

Yes I’m happy to give the bloke a chance. 5 year deal just seems unnecessary to me.

 

Because they havnt signed a new one?

 

That was one of Wilmot's better games too.

 

An injury-prone striker who scored 19 in 92 games for Boro...

Why we sign dis guy?

 

At least we had the sense to only give Perica a 2 year deal.

If that was the case here I wouldn't care.

The issue is the 5 year deal.

 

lol

 

Let’s be realistic as to why though. In the article at the start of the thread Warnock is quoted as saying he was offered a ‘fantastic new deal’ which the player turned down.

I think it’s pretty clear that he was obviously offered a deal worse than the one he is on, because Boro don’t really rate him or want him that much - see comments from their fans in HB1’s post. See also what we did with Joka.

He obviously fancied his chances of getting a better deal elsewhere, based on his record he’d have been mad to turn a better one down if Boro had offered it.

 

There was a thread but I'm not sure we were ever actually linked with buying him

http://wfcforums.com/index.php?threads/ashley-fletcher.53058/

 

It reeks of a last minute deadline day desperation signing when everything else has fallen through. What is concerning is that this is the start of our window.

I'm now fully expecting James Vaughn on a 6 year deal on deadline day.

 

That thread mentioned him for two posts and then descended into one of only 30,000 Vydra kerfuffles on this forum.

 

This has shades of my old Football Manager tactics of just signing any free agent who is vaguely able to kick a ball and instantly you have a new asset worth maybe £2m. That's probably what this is.

 

Thats my thinking even if he wasnt the signing I was hoping for. Isnt going to cost alot and if he can keep up with play, knows the offside rule, can control a football and doesnt fall over every time an opposition player looks at him then he's an improvement on what we already have.

 

Except Giaretta clearly said Deeney can stay as long as he likes. So I don’t think we ‘know’ we won’t ever be lumbered with his wages in the Championship ever again. Widely reported that there’s a 1yr extension in the contract which could yet be triggered.

I think Fletcher is a very poor signing and a worrying signal of intent for a club with poor striking options moving into the PL. If it had to happen, the club should have been offering a 1yr deal with a years option. 5yrs is just baffling in the extreme.

The lad is not a PL footballer and there’s a body of evidence that backs that up.

 

What is wrong with you? Can you not help yourself from constantly having a dig at people?

 

Absolutely no doubt we will shift some. Who I'm not sure. This is purely a squad option who may come good we just have to wait and see.

 

Didn’t happen with a number of players we signed who fell into that bracket. So I totally get the apprehension that this is more of the same sadly.

 

What’s also confusing is that we have done this deal so early - when I’m fairly certain he would have still been without a club come deadline day and could have panicked then.

 

Understand what your saying but in all honesty we dont have have a Premier league striker anyways. He's purely a squad player who will be replacing one of the horrible options now, will be cheaper than all of them bar say Perica. Perica will no doubt get sold along with Penaranda and Success and this will easy cover the contract given to Fletcher. His stats were on par with Gray this season who is just robbing us blind. It's not the forward signing I was hoping for but I don't believe it's as bad as many are saying.

 

I don't know how you can read so much in to what type of deal Boro would have offered him - maybe it might have been less than before, but if so probably because they paid a lot of money for him when signing him initially and they're now in a worse financial situation.

The fact that we'd have comfortably been able to have offered a better deal than whatever Boro could have done is clearly the overriding factor - he would not "have been mad to turn a better one down if Boro had offered it", given that he would have probably already had a good idea that we or other bigger Champ clubs were willing to offer something better, hence why he was willing to let his contract run down with Boro.

What would "have been mad" would have been if he'd have accepted an improved offer from Boro when he also had an even better offer on the table from us.

 

I think it’s fairly easy to draw the logical conclusion. He was clearly low balled and for good reason.

What other clubs were interested in him?

 

That’s a lot of assumptions though isn’t it?

If he’s replacing one of the horrible options we have now, why don’t we wait until they are out the door? We made the same mistake with Murray last season. Could equally be said we made the same mistake with Perica too as he disappeared from the squad once Success was deemed fit.

You say there is ‘no doubt’ that Penaranda, Success and Perica will all be sold. But we have a track record of being very very bad at shifting poor strikers on long contracts. We may sell them - but recent history suggests to me that they could equally (and probably even likely) still be here come the end of the summer.

Fletcher, on a short-term deal AFTER we have cleared out the deadwood, I could just about understand. But a 5yr deal whilst the above players are still picking up wages and looking hard to shift? Seems like madness to me.

 

The Martin Devaney approach.

 

He was very good in Porridge so I'm in.

Let's get Godber in as well, good pairing up top to nick us a few goals in the Prem.

 

Has the same agent as Deeney & Cleverley so maybe this is where it all came from. I see he also has Ivan Toney on his books. So maybe a sweetener if Brentford don't go up..........

http://www.pinnaclesel.com/

 

Sure, he of course tells the 100% truth to the press all the time and would never make any kind of comment for PR reasons to try and appease the fans/Troy/Troy's agent/whoever else may be appropriate/try and attract other clubs to register an interest in him etc. etc. delete as appropriate.

 

He could, but could we?

 

‘Dreadful signing’, ‘Fraud’ - Many Middlesbrough fans react as former striker Premier League bound - The 72

 

You've not shown anything to indicate why it was "the logical conclusion".

We don't know who else was interested in him as clearly this deal was done very much behind-the-scenes. For sure we'd have been able to offer more than whatever Boro would have been able to though.

Plus, as I slightly tongue-in-cheek suggested before, maybe Woodgate would have been interested in linking up with him again at Muff? Fletcher did do well at Boro under him.

 

Correct many assumptions but I'm hoping that Cristiano Giaretta is better at his job than the last fella by shifting the useless forwards.
But I do agree it's very odd timing and a huge contract that probably wasn't needed now. But on the other hand he's here, settled and ready for preseason. Yes I'm clutching.
I'm hopeful as I said that Cristiano Giaretta, behind the scenes has already managed to shift some deadwood and we're just awaiting confirmation. But again I'm clutching.

 

It's no surprise many fans are not excited by this signing. Our track record for signing central strikers is pretty poor.

Geijo, Acuna, Vydra, Ighalo, Ikpeazu, Niang, Ranegie, Murray, Perica, Stuparevic, Penaranda, Oulare, Zarate, Success & Gray.

How many success stories from that lot? Yet we turn our noses up at Ivan Toney, who was offered to us for £5m. Got to really question the judgement of the scouts and hierarchy when they continue to underachieve in signing quality for this key area.

 

God, why don't they say what they actually think?

 

Couldn’t get Toney in because we couldn’t shift the deadwood we already had.

Now we bring this guy in who is no better than what we have before we shift the deadwood.

Ok, we have money now at least for a year, but it’s like they’ve learned nothing from the past 12 months.

They must be really confident of being able to shift players they couldn’t shift a year ago to bring in a 30 goal a season championship player, even though these players have damaged their reputations even more 12 months on and will be even harder to shift.