West Brom: Tony Pulis names ‘top Professional’ Darren Fletcher as his best ever signing
Tony Pulis has revealed that he believes he never “signed a better player” than when he brought Darren Fletcher to West Brom in 2015.
The former Manchester United midfielder joined the ranks immediately after Pulis took charge of the Baggies in the January transfer window and was quickly made first-team captain at The Hawthorns such was his professionalism.
Despite a long management career that spanned nearly 30 years at a variety of levels, the former Stoke City boss doesn’t believe he ever made a better addition to his side than when he brought the Scotland international to the Midlands club.
Speaking on the Express and Star’s Baggies Broadcast (5 September: 20:35), Pulis said: “People ask me about players that I’ve worked with and people who have been an influence in the dressing room, at all the clubs, there was always big influences and I like strong characters.
“Fletch was brilliant. He’s a gentleman, a top, top, top professional and he leads by example. He’s not a shouter or a hollower but he knew the game. I spoke to Sir Alex [Ferguson] about him and he gave him such a great, great reference it was frightening.
“I don’t honestly think I signed a better player than Darren.”
Top professional
Whenever you think about a Pulis side the characteristics that come to mind are professionalism alongside a workmanlike attitude and few players encapsulated that more clearly than Fletcher, who is the definition of a model pro.
While it was a very different time under Pulis at the Hawthorns back then, with the Baggies lying mid-table in the Premier League, there are lessons to be learned from what made that side so successful when analysing the West Brom team at the disposal of Carlos Corberan.
Fletcher may have been a free transfer from Manchester United, but he offered a steady presence at the heart of midfield, playing every game for the two-and-a-half seasons that he spent at the Hawthorns, starting all bar one game.
Want classifies success now at the Hawthorns is completely different from what it was a decade or so ago, but that side in the Premier League for the Baggies were united and together in a very similar mould to what Corberan is hoping to achieve.
The styles of football aren’t very similar and the make-up of each squad contrasts with one another, but with sensible and safe recruitment and a strong spine to a side good things can be achieved.
However, it would help Corberan immensely should the Baggies be able to take any of Manchester United’s midfielders on a free this summer.
In other West Brom news, Corberan had dubbed the Baggies transfer window this summer “incredible”