Dael Fry has spoken out for the first time since reports emerged claiming West Ham United were in talks to sign the Middlesbrough defender on a free transfer.
According to club insider ExWhuEmployee, the Hammers have made Fry their ‘top target’.
Discussions are reportedly underway as a ‘gutted’ Middlesbrough fanbase prepare to lose a long-serving centre-back for absolutely nothing.
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Fry, who was mentioned among a number of defensive targets by Ex On West Ham Way, would make no mention of those links to East London.
He does, though, feel the future at Middlesbrough is ‘really bright’ following the appointment of head coach Kim Hellberg. A man the reported West Ham United target describes as a ‘genius’.
Dael Fry predicts ‘bright’ Middlesbrough future as West Ham United come calling
“Since Kim – and his staff as well, by the way – have come in, they’ve been absolutely brilliant. In every single way possible,” Fry says in quotes reported by Gazette Live. “He’s been brilliant.
“Middlesbrough Football Club, with Kim Hellberg in charge, I think the future is really bright. He’s a brilliant young coach. He sees football in a different way and his ideas sometimes… He tells you something and you think, ‘whoa, where’s that come from?’
“Everything he says is exactly what the players are feeling. He makes you want to run through a brick wall for him, and to have a manager like that is absolutely brilliant.”
Will Fry ‘run through a brick wall’ one more time for Hellberg and commit his future to the Riverside outfit? That remains to be seen. According to the Northern Echo, Hellberg is as much of an admirer of Fry as Fry is of Hellberg.
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That should stand last season’s play-off runners-up in good stead. The Echo added, in a report published five days ago, that Middlesbrough are still ‘confident’ that fresh terms will be agreed with the former England Under-21 international.
The likes of Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield United have also been linked. West Ham, likely to be installed as early Championship title favourites, may prove the biggest test of Fry’s loyalty as well as Hellberg’s ability to keep a squad together.
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