West Ham near to announcing Ashley Fletcher deal

West Ham are believed to be on the verge of announcing the capture of Ashley Fletcher from Manchester United.

The England U20 international striker rejected a new deal at Old Trafford because he doesn’t have faith in the club’s ability to bring through developing young talent from their academy ranks under Jose Mourinho.

Fletcher’s deal with United expired at the end of June and he is now searching for a new club but is not short of suitors following an impressive loan spell with Barnsley last season where he netted nine times in 27 appearances.

It emerged today that Wolves were interested in signing the 20-year-old striker, who has also been linked with a move to Leeds United as well as a permanent return to Barnsley but it seems the Hammers have won the race for his signature.

Regional paper, the Yorkshire Post – who have close links with Barnsley, Fletcher’s former club, have stated that the Tykes have ended their pursuit of the free agent striker who is ‘now at West Ham’. It had been rumoured that Fletcher was poised to put pen-to-paper on a four-year deal with the Hammers.

West Ham have made a habit of pinching top talents from so called ‘bigger clubs’ of late having already welcomed Domingos Quina from Chelsea and Toni Martinez from Valencia in the last few months, both of whom have been given a chance to impress Slaven Bilic and his coaching staff as they were included in the first-team squad’s pre-season tour of the USA.