Manchester United striker Ashley Fletcher is under going a medical at West Ham ahead of a proposed move to the Olympic Stadium according to various media sources, the 20-year-old's current contract at Old Trafford expires this summer and he will be allowed to join up with 'Super Slav' and his boys on a free transfer. Well, not exactly free, if a deal is completed Manchester United will be due a compensation fee as Fletcher came through the club's youth system. Fletcher, who has represented England at U20 level will become Slaven Bilic's fifth signing of the summer following the arrivals of Sofiane Feghouli, Toni Martinez, Havard Nordtveit and Domingos Quina. He joined the red side of Manchester in 2012, spent the second half of last season on loan at Sky Bet League One side Barnsley and helped them secure promotion via the play offs by scoring their first goal inside two minutes against Millwall. Fletcher has scored two in two matches for England U20s and nine times in 27 appearances during his loan spell at Barnsley.
The confident youngster feels he can break in to the West Ham United first team, despite the current presence of Diafra Sakho, Enner Valencia and Andy Carroll as senior out and out strikers and the imminent arrival of one if not two others, one of which will probably be a 'Marquee' signing who will be virtually guaranteed a starting berth. One of the most significant reasons why Fletcher seems willing to take such a risk, is that the shadow of Jose Mourinho has descended on the Manchester United youth programme, and Mourinho renowned for rarely, if ever, using untried youths, doesn't represent a clear path to first team appearances, in fact his track record for bringing players through club's youth systems is appalling.
Should Fletcher sign will Slaven Billic give him his chance? Logic dictates that the club would not be signing him unless it was authorised by the manager as well as the co-owners and the recruiting team in place, in a way Fletcher is a bit of a cleaned up version of Ravel Morrison without the attitude, it is to be hoped that he fares much better under the tutelage of Slaven than Ravel did under Sam Allardyce. - Ed
Comments
Well, the youth team will certainly be good!
Samuelsen, Oxford, Burke, Quina, Martinez, now Fletcher -- that's six quality players under 20. Are there people I missed? Talk about a revolution! But much as I'd love to see all of these come through and prove themselves in the Premier League, we all saw how Oxford got skinned by Lukaku against Everton. They have a lot to learn, and they need still to put some meat on the their young bones. So they are not the answer for next season, although I can see Samuelsen and Oxford getting a reasonable number of appearances this season (although loans are possible). I applaud West Ham for these incredible efforts with signing the youth, and hope for the best for all of these players.
Lukaku made Oxford look like
Lukaku made Oxford look like a polytechnic in that match but then Lukaku is a beast, if we signed him as a striker i would be over the moon. Bilic done the right thing this season, gave him a taste of first team v arsenal and a couple of other games but saw he wasnt ready so hopefully he has been working on his development and we will see him make a few appearances again.
agree with you 100% andycarroll
Bilic never allowed all the youth to be exposed the way Allardyce did. Looking back at that cup match where Allardyce threw them to the wolves -- it was shameful. And he did it to "prove a point" to the fans. Bilic has been much more paternal with the development of the youth; giving them a taste and sending them out on loan to good clubs. I'm really hopeful that with that sort of care for their development we can see them crack into the first team and take the next step.