Five players to watch in the Championship this season

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Steven Fletcher – Sheffield Wednesday

Shades of Darren Bent in this, Steven Fletcher comes to Sheffield Wednesday off the back of a disappointing half season with Sunderland and a rather bizarre, albeit romantic, loan spell on the south coast of France with Marseilles. In the Championship for the first time in his career after his release from the Stadium of Light, Fletcher has a point to prove in the second tier. So predatory from 2010 to 2013 when he netted double figures in three consecutive seasons, the Scot lost his way as the Premier League game began to favor pressing, dynamic strikers over their more predatory, if staid, counterparts. The former twelve million pound predator now has the perfect platform to outgun the league’s creaky defenses and reignite top flight interest in his services.

Fletcher’s game centers around flits of brilliance. A striker with limited dribbling and hold-up ability, at least on the game’s biggest stage, Fletcher revels in the incision of one and two-touch football. Great at flicking the ball into the path of onrushing runners, or finishing with one touch in the box, Fletcher will use this speed of thought to great effect against the less-cerebral back-lines of the Championship. If Fletcher can strike up a partnership with Forestieri, the dynamic Italian second striker, then Wednesday could have themselves the most effective attack in the league.