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Sources: Watford set to sign Middlesbrough striker Fletcher after five-year contract agreed
Watford are set to sign Middlesbrough striker Ashley Fletcher on a free transfer, Football Insider can exclusively reveal.
The 25-year-old has struggled for game time at the Riverside this season because of injury and now looks set to move on.
A recruitment source has told Football Insider that the striker has agreed terms on a five-year contract with Premier League new boys Watford.
Neil Warnock confirmed in April that Fletcher would quit the Teeside club when his contract expires at the end of next month.
The Boro boss also revealed the centre-forward rebuffed a “fabulous offer” to stay with the Championship side.
Fletcher was left out of Middlesbrough’s last four matchday squads of the 2020-21 campaign along with Britt Assombalonga who is also out of contract this summer.
Warnock decided he did not want to see the pair in action again as they were not going to be part of his plans for next season.
A £6.5million signing from West Ham in July 2017, Fletcher has contributed 28 goals and 11 assists in 109 appearances for Boro.
He spent four months of the 2020-21 season sidelined with a serious hamstring injury and managed just six starts across all competitions.
The best season of Fletcher’s career came in the 2019-20 campaign, when he contributed 13 goals and seven assists in 46 appearances for Middlesbrough.
Watford are looking to bolster their squad this summer after they returned to the Premier League at the first time of asking.
Xisco Munoz is keen to add more firepower to an attack which already boasts the likes of Ismaila Sarr, Joao Pedro, Troy Deeney and Andre Gray.
In other news, Watford star opens talks over new-three-year deal.