Sunderland sporting director Kristjaan Speakman has worked hard in recent transfer windows to cultivate a squad full of talented young prospects to compete in the first-team.

The Black Cats chief has struck gold with the likes of Amad Diallo, Jack Clarke, and Patrick Roberts, to name a few, and has also brought in quality, experienced, operators like Danny Batth and Corry Evans.

However, the club have not always had the greatest success in the transfer market over the years and have been prone to bringing in the occasional flop.

One player who they had a howler with at the Stadium of Light was Scotland international Steven Fletcher, who joined Sunderland from then recently-relegated Premier League outfit Wolves in the summer of 2012.

How did Steven Fletcher perform for Sunderland?

Then-boss Martin O'Neill snapped the centre-forward up for a £14m package and lauded the signing, saying"I think Steven will be terrific for us. Steven has a proven track record of scoring goals.

"He's underrated, but not by me. I'm delighted that we've been able to bring him to Sunderland."

The striker came to Wearside off the back of scoring an impressive 22 Premier League goals in two seasons with Wolves and enjoyed a superb first campaign with the Black Cats.

Fletcher plundered 11 goals and one assist in 28 top-flight outings for the club - averaging a WhoScored rating of 6.98 - and won an eye-catching 5.1 aerial battles per match.

However, the following three seasons were littered with inconsistent displays and a lack of goals. The flop managed only 12 strikes in 66 Premier League games between the 2013/14 and 2015/16 campaigns - averaging a WhoScored rating of 6.73 or lower in that time.

He also failed to average more than four aerial battles won per outing in that three-year spell and that suggests that the 6 foot 1 attacker's usefulness to the team faded alongside his goals.

Fletcher did incredibly well to score 11 in his first season but to then fail to score more than five in any of the following three campaigns was disappointing from the Scottish attacker.

This led to the Black Cats releasing him on a free transfer in the summer of 2016, prior to his move to Sheffield Wednesday in the lower tiers, which was just four years on from the £14m deal to snap him up from Wolves.

Therefore, O'Neill had a shocker with Fletcher as Sunderland, essentially, managed to get one good year out of the striker before being left with an underwhelming and inconsistent centre-forward for three years - after lavishing out a significant fee for his services and recouping none of it with his exit.