West Ham United may not have believed their luck when they received a phone call from Middlesbrough in July 2017.
After all, it’s not often you’re handed the chance to make a £5.5 million profit on a striker who failed to score a single goal in 16 Premier League games.
At the time, selling Ashley Fletcher to Boro – for a fee of £6.5 million – looked like good business. Flash forward four years and you can probably replace ‘good’ with ‘great’.
Because, with Fletcher’s contract due to expire in just two months, the one-time Manchester United youngster is about to become a free agent.
Record-signing Britt Assombalonga is on his way out of the Riverside too. Just for context, Middlesbrough are about to lose two strikers they snapped up for a combined £21.5 million for nothing.
“When you’re looking at next season and you know you’re not going to be here, both of them have probably got another club now, so I’m told. I didn’t think there was any point carrying on. We’ve agreed to let them both go – it’s only two more weeks,” Boro boss Neil Warnock told Teesside Live recently.
“We’ve told (Assombalonga and Fletcher) they won’t be involved again now. They won’t play and they won’t train with us. I just felt it was the right time.”
At the age of 25, Fletcher still has plenty of time on his side – even if he may not fulfil the potential West Ham saw in him all those years ago.
It shouldn’t be forgotten the skilful striker scored a more than respectable 13 goals in 2019/20, while this season’s meagre tally of four is more a reflection of injury problems than a dramatic loss of form.
But, right now, West Ham’s £6.5 million sale looks even better than it did at the time.
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