MIDDLESBROUGH have confirmed the £6.5m signing of Ashley Fletcher from West Ham, with the striker having penned a four-year deal.

Fletcher’s transfer was confirmed this morning, with the 21-year-old having left West Ham’s training camp in Germany yesterday to undergo a medical and finalise personal terms with the Teessiders.

The transfer means Boro have spent more than £30m on attacking trio Martin Braithwaite, Britt Assombalonga and Fletcher in the last fortnight, and takes Garry Monk’s total summer spending above the £40m mark.

Boro have recouped funds through the sale of Jordan Rhodes, Cristhian Stuani, Bernardo Espinosa and Viktor Fischer, but their net spend remains one of the highest in the Championship and exceeds that of a number of Premier League clubs.

Fletcher’s West Ham future was placed into doubt when Javier Hernandez completed his £16m move to the London Stadium, and while Slaven Bilic had initially hoped to keep the youngster on the Hammers’ books, he was forced to concede defeat when Middlesbrough tabled a formal offer.

Bilic admits he was powerless to prevent Fletcher becoming Middlesbrough’s sixth permanent summer signing after the striker was presented with a “fantastic offer” to move to the North-East.

“The step that he made from coming here as a no-name to being a player a lot of Championship clubs want is a big bonus for him, so he went to discuss personal terms (with Middlesbrough),” said Bilic. “He is a very good and promising player.

“He got a fantastic offer (from Boro). Ideally, I wanted to have a different scenario, but the offer was so good and I told him to be proud.”

Born in the West Yorkshire town of Keighley, Fletcher started his career with Bolton Wanderers, but moved to Manchester United’s academy at the age of 13.

He was offered a professional contract at Old Trafford, but turned down Jose Mourinho’s advances to sign a four-year deal with West Ham last summer.

He made 20 senior appearances for the Hammers last season, although only two of his 16 Premier League outings saw him start and he only managed one goal, in an EFL Cup defeat to Manchester United.

He is capable of playing as an out-and-out centre-forward or in a wide attacking role, and while he will not be involved in tomorrow’s final pre-season friendly with Augbsurg, he should be available for the opening game of the Championship season against Wolves in eight days’ time.

Monk tried to sign Fletcher in January when he was manager of Leeds United, but was unable to persuade West Ham to release the youngster halfway through the season. He recommended Fletcher to Boro’s recruitment team in the early days of his Boro reign, and will be delighted with yesterday’s developments.

It remains to be seen whether the signing of yet another forward results in the departure of either Rudy Gestede or Patrick Bamford. Boro now boast five senior attackers on their books, but a lack of goals was a major problem last season and Alvaro Negredo and Stuani have already left since the end of last term.

Two players who are expected to leave before the end of next month are Stewart Downing and Gaston Ramirez, with the former the subject of strong interest from Birmingham City and the latter on the radar of a number of Spanish clubs.

Birmingham boss Harry Redknapp remains hopeful of persuading Downing to move to St Andrew’s, although the striker’s current wages, which are understood to be around £60,000-a-week, continue to present a problem.

Ramirez has been the subject of discussions with Spanish side Real Betis this week, although the La Liga club have not yet come up with an offer that meets Boro’s valuation of the Uruguayan midfielder.

The Boro hierarchy are not interested in a loan deal, and will be demanding a hefty fee for Ramirez, who was the subject of an unsuccessful £12m bid from Leicester City during the January transfer window.