£6.5m Middlesbrough transfer agreement with West Ham was an absolute disaster: View | OneFootball

Middlesbrough will be hoping to challenge for promotion from the Championship next season.

Boro missed out on the play-offs this season after an inconsistent campaign, but a run of just one defeat in their final 12 games has given supporters plenty of hope going into the summer.

The club adopted a policy of signing younger or unproven players last summer, and while it took time for the new additions to settle, they have now found their feet at Championship level, and no player has improved as much as striker Emmanuel Latte Lath.

After returning from injury in February, Latte Lath ended the season in excellent form, and Boro will hope he can be the man to lead them to promotion next season after scoring an impressive 18 goals in 36 games during his first year in English football.

Latte Lath is the latest striker to thrive at the Riverside Stadium, with the likes of David Nugent, Cristhian Stuani, Britt Assombalonga, Chuba Akpom and Cameron Archer also enjoying strong spells at the club in recent years, but it is fair to say that not all of Boro's striker signings have been quite as successful.

One signing that Boro supporters will be desperate to forget is that of Ashley Fletcher, who joined the club from West Ham United for a fee of £6.5 million in July 2017.

Middlesbrough's big money Ashley Fletcher deal will be viewed as a failure

Fletcher began his career with Manchester United, and after a successful loan spell at Barnsley in the 2015-16 season, in which he helped the Tykes to promotion from League One, he was offered a new contract at Old Trafford, but he turned it down and made the move to West Ham in July 2016.

After scoring just once in 20 appearances for the Hammers, Fletcher departed the London Stadium the following summer as he joined Boro.

Boro's decision to pay £6.5 million for Fletcher certainly raised eyebrows, but that was typical of a summer of overspending at the club under Garry Monk following relegation from the Premier League.

Fletcher struggled to break into the starting line-up ahead of fellow high-profile signing Assombalonga, and he spent the second half of the 2017-18 season on loan at Sunderland, where he scored two goals in 16 games as the Black Cats were relegated from the Championship.

The striker was a regular for Boro over the next three seasons after returning from his loan spell at Sunderland, and while he did enjoy a decent season in the 2019-20 campaign, he failed to repay the club's significant investment in him.

Despite his poor form, Fletcher was offered a new contract by Boro in the 2020-21 season, with then manager Neil Warnock describing the proposal as "fabulous", but he opted against signing a new deal at the club, and he departed suddenly in April 2021 with four games of the season remaining.

Fletcher admitted that his exit was "sudden and not how I wanted to leave", and while he insisted that he had "no bad words to say" about Warnock, there is no doubt it was a controversial way for his time on Teesside to come to an end.

In total, Fletcher scored 28 goals and registered 11 assists in 109 appearances for Boro, and owner Steve Gibson will have been incredibly frustrated that the club were unable to recoup any of the transfer fee they paid for him, as well as being disappointed with his lack of impact on the pitch.

The striker then made a surprise move to Watford, who had just been promoted to the Premier League, in May 2021, but he went on to score just two goals in six appearances for the Hornets, and he spent much of his time at Vicarage Road out on loan.

After spells with New York Red Bulls and Wigan Athletic, Fletcher made a temporary move to Sheffield Wednesday in July, reuniting with his former Watford manager Xisco Munoz.

However, Fletcher's time at Hillsborough was a disaster as he failed to score in 28 appearances for the Owls, and he fell out of favour under Danny Rohl in the second half of the season.

It is hard not to feel some sympathy for Fletcher, and his lack of confidence was evident during his loan spell at Wednesday, but he has failed to live up to the potential he showed during the early stages of his career.

Fletcher's struggles since leaving the Riverside Stadium will only serve to remind Boro of their big transfer mistake, and after being released by Watford this summer, the striker will be hoping that another club will take a chance on him.