Steve Fletcher opens up on Bournemouth's progression as a club

18 years ago, Bournemouth found themselves staring into the abyss. Bournemouth had just been handed a 17-point deduction after failing to secure a Company Voluntary Arrangement, a formal insolvency procedure used by financially distressed football clubs to pay off a percentage of their debts.

The club was £4 million in debt, and matchday staff and fans relied on bucket collections outside Dean Court just to pay basic operating costs and player wages, and all signs pointed to them suffering a second-straight relegation. It's why Bournemouth made two sweeping changes to their squad: they appointed former player Eddie Howe as their new coach, and they re-signed Steven Fletcher. Just 1.5 years after departing, Bournemouth's all-time appearance maker was back.

Born in Hartlepool, England, Steve Mark Fletcher left his boyhood club Hartlepool United for Bournemouth in 1992, spending 15 years with the Cherries before enjoying spells with Chesterfield and Crawley Town. He returned in January 2009 alongside Howe and continued to add to his legend, helping Bournemouth erase a seemingly insurmountable deficit and stave off the drop by scoring the winning goal in the penultimate match of the season.

Had Bournemouth dropped out of League Two, they would have likely gone extinct without the backing of the English Football League. Instead, they would end up winning promotion the following year to League One. Fletcher stayed put in Dorset, apart from a brief loan spell at Plymouth Argyle, helping Bournemouth reach the Championship in 2013 before deciding to hang up his boots after a 23-year professional career.

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After a legendary chapter that saw him score 122 goals (third-most in Bournemouth history) in 726 appearances (243 more than any other Bournemouth player), Fletcher has continued working with the Cherries in multiple capacities, such as assistant coach, scout, and club ambassador. He's watched proudly as the club reached the Premier League for the first time ever in 2015 before qualifying for European football for the first time in 2026.

"You could only dream of playing teams like Liverpool or Manchester United back in the day...maybe in a cup game, if you got lucky and were drawn against them. We're playing them on a level playing field, week in, week out," stated Fletcher in an exclusive Breaking The Lines interview. "You've stood outside the changing room, and you've got Arsène Wenger, Pep Guardiola and Sir Alex Ferguson...it's just incredible to see these people around you, never mind the players, just the managers stood there, and you're chatting to them."

"You've got Arsenal, you've got Man City, you've got Liverpool and Man United, the four biggest clubs in England, then you've got Newcastle, Aston Villa, Leeds, Everton, Tottenham. Clubs who've got tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of fans all over the world, whose expectation is that they've got to compete in that top 4 or 5 every season to get in the Champions League."

"I was on Eddie Howe's coaching staff for 8 years after I retired, and I saw Mikel Arteta coming into our room after the game. He walked out, and I was like, 'Has Mikel Arteta just been in our room?' It was like a pinch-yourself moment. You're chatting to Mourinho before the games, and right when I walked away, I'd be on the phone to my parents and my friends going, 'I've just been speaking to José Mourinho,' because it's just something you could never dream of when you've been in the lower leagues of English football all your career."

"We're there now, and we've got to compete. It doesn't matter what level you're at, you've got to compete, and we've done that fabulously. I've been part of this journey now for 34 years, and you know what the best thing is? Our supporters never forget the bad times and the hard times. When you're playing the big teams, it's great, of course it is, and all the young supporters want to see all the superstars around the world, all the top soccer players, and they are doing that."

"But the older fans, the fans who were there when I was playing, they still remember the old times, and they still come up to me and say, 'Fletch, I'll never forget the games we played on a Tuesday night, pouring down with rain, and we traveled 5 hours in the car.' Those are the memories, those are the occasions you've got to go through to appreciate what you've got now."

Bournemouth are now preparing to play in the UEFA Europa League, and when they take the field for their maiden intercontinental match at Dean Court, their home support will be watching proudly from the Steve Fletcher Stand, originally the North Stand. The main home supporters' stand behind the goal, it was renamed in Fletcher's honor in 2010 and features a massive, six-foot-tall picture of Fletcher's face.

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Breaking The Lines spoke to Fletcher about a number of different topics, including:

Let me ask you, what, you know, for those of us who are too young to watch you play, how would you describe your style of play, and are there any current players who you would liken your game to?

I'm not that old; there are still clips of me on the internet you can find. I was aggressive...I don't think I could survive in today's game with the referees and cameras. I think there are a lot of things that happened off the ball that shouldn't have happened, and now you'd be banned for 3, 4, 5 games. I was very physical, very aggressive, I was good in the air. I was very good at heading the ball, I was very brave, or very stupid, whichever way you want to look at it.

When you're a young lad, and you get your first professional contract, it doesn't matter whether you're playing basketball, football, soccer, hockey, or rugby, you can't really see past your first contract. I'd put my head where you shouldn't really put your head, but that was my game, that was my physicality. I'm 6'3" and 96 kilos, I'm a strong lad, and I had to use it to the best of my ability.

I was an old-fashioned center-forward, a big, strong lad who held the ball up and brought other people into play. We'll head the ball and do all the things a lot of the nicer players don't want to do, as we say. All the flair players don't want to do the things that I used to do, so there aren't many of me around.

There are a few wandering around, maybe in the lower leagues, even in the Championship, but I don't think there are many. Definitely not in the Premier League. You probably couldn't get away with what I got away with when I was a player; I think those players now would be sent up every other game. There would be red cards left, right, and center.

I like watching Evanilson, because he holds the ball up well. He's different to me, he's 6'4", I'm 6'3." Eva's got so much ability that I never had, but he's brave when he holds the ball up and he's prepared to back into defenders and take one for the team and sacrifice himself. He's a good link-up player, which is probably what I was very good at. It's pointless me comparing myself to anybody else, because how can you compare yourself to someone like Eli Junior Kroupi swhen he's fast, quick, and scores all types of goals?

Evanilson: The Young Brazilian Striker Making a Name for Himself in Portugal

That wasn't me. I love watching him, but I can't compare myself to any of that. When I watch Evanilson, I'm always like, 'Come on, mate, hold the ball up, yes, well done.' I'm talking to him, even though I'm miles away in the stadium; I can see a little bit of myself in Evanilson, because he is the target man, he leads the line, he holds the ball up well, and he brings people into play.

But he's also a good finisher, and he's got so much more in his locker. He's got an abundance of ability, and he's a great person. He comes from Brazil, he went to Porto for a couple of seasons, he came over from Portugal to England, and he has been brilliant for us ever since he's been here. I really like him as a person as well, which obviously helps.

Bournemouth have managed to consistently punch above their weight despite losing so many key players over the years like Dean Huijsen and Ilya Zabarnyi...why do you think that is?

You can't help it. You've just got to make sure that the other players coming in, or the new players you sign, are hopefully, you know, on a level, or you can coach them to that level of the players that have left, and that's something we've done incredibly well, like I say, everyone I speak to, every pundit, doesn't matter if it's in America, or Europe, or the UK, the first thing they say to me is, 'Fletch, your recruitment departments have been incredible,' so we need that to continue hugely, because that's a huge part of this football club.

There have obviously been so many teams that have flown too close to the sun and gotten burned -- Leicester City are the most recent example. Bournemouth are trying to dream big, but they're also trying to be sensible. Do you think that's part of the plan and the reason to be optimistic in Bournemouth's leadership? Not necessarily taking big swings, but slow steps?

There is potential to go bigger, but at this time, I think sustainability and making sure that we have to prioritize certain things. We have seen big clubs get burnt. Leicester are one of them: they're in League One now; not only did they go down to the Championship, they got relegated from the Championship last season. They're a big club that won the Premier League 10 seasons ago, and now they're in League One. We've got to look at that; we've got to look at other clubs that faltered and got it wrong, and they went down and down again and got relegated.

We don't want to be that team. We don't want to be sat here in two years' time, saying, 'We didn't do things right.' But I think for everything we've done in the past few years, we've done everything great. We do have a realistic ambition, of course we do. We're not a stupid football club. We haven't got people at the top level making decisions who are not realistic for this football club. We're very ambitious; we want to do as well as we can do, but we've got to be sensible.

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We've got to be realistic, we can't just go all guns blazing, throwing everything we've got. Things have to be looked at and prioritized, and I'm sure the bigger people and the people higher up- the owner, the sporting director, the manager, people like that will have sat down and said, 'Look, what do we think? What is the plan of action? Those things will have been talked about; of course it would have with us being in Europe and adding that to the calendar.

In the 0.0001% chance that Bournemouth does go down this season, it does seem like they would be in a better position than other squads that might have been saddled with massive wages and forced to take cheap transfer fees to offload these players. Do you concur?

I think that goes for the majority of clubs in the Premier League. Nobody's guaranteed safety in the Premier League. Yes, you could say Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool, Man United, Chelsea, but look what nearly happened to Tottenham last season and Manchester United the season before. Nobody's guaranteed anything in the Premier League, so I think for everybody, it's always a gamble, whatever you do. Bournemouth are very clever in the way we get players in for certain money.

Our expenditure has got to be careful because of Financial Fair Play. We've got people at the top looking at that and making sure that we do things in the right way, but listen, it doesn't matter if you're a new team in the Premier League, like Hull City will be this season. Everything's a little bit of a risk; of course it is.

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You've just got to make sure that when the worst happens, or if it does happen, the club is sustainable and everything's put in place, and make sure that the club survives and you can compete the season after. Hopefully, we don't have to talk about that, I don't want to really think negative; I don't want to think positive, but I'm sure there'll be things put in place by the bigger people at the top who recognize anything could happen at any time.

Nobody is guaranteed anything in this league. Nothing is a given. Every game is very difficult. It doesn't matter if you're playing newly promoted teams like Ipswich, Hull, and Coventry, or you're playing Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal. You've got to be your very best to get anything in this league. I remember when I was a coach, and I was with Eddie Howe, and we were disappointed that we'd gotten a point, because we thought we should have won the game. And the opposition manager came in and said, 'Cherish every point.'

Every point is precious in the Premier League. It doesn't matter what team you are; we never take anything for granted, and it's always a gamble every season. But you've got to progress; you've got to try and move forward, even if it's small little steps, you've got to be looking to be progressing, because you can't not spend.

Some clubs have tried that, and they've come up to the Premier League, and they've not really spent much, and they've just gone down. They're probably down before even two-thirds of the season is over, so everybody's priority is different in this football club in the Premier League. For us, we just try and keep moving forward, and just make little gains every season. That's what we've done, and hopefully we'll do that again.

Lastly, Bournemouth are going to be competing in Europe for the first time ever. How do you think this team is gonna be able to cope with something that they've never had to do in the past?

The honest truth is I don't know, because it's the first time that it's ever happened to us. I can't give you examples of seasons in the past where we've done it, because we haven't. This is our inaugural time in the 127-year history of this football club, that we've ever been in Europe. So, to juggle Europe, to juggle a Premier League, to juggle the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup, I don't know. Good luck to everybody who tries it. I'm sure we'll go out and try and win every game, but we've got to be sensible. We need to remain a Premier League team. I need to be speaking to you next season, and we are still a Premier League team. That, for me, personally, is the priority.

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If we could get a good cup run along the way, whether it be Europe, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, the fans love the cup competitions. Of course, everybody wants to get to a final. We as a club have never been to a final. We've never even been to a semi-final. We've been to the quarterfinals of the FA Cup a couple of times, and the Carabao Cup, but we've never even been to a semi-final, so that would be an incredible achievement for this football club. But for me, the priority is the Premier League. Anything else, any cup run is a bonus.

But yeah, it's a tough balance, because what do you prioritize? You have to prioritize the Premier League. Then is it Europe or the FA Cup? For me, then it probably would be Europe, especially going in there and mixing it with some very big teams throughout the continent of Europe, and then if you can have a cup run in the FA Cup, or the Carabao Cup, that would be, excuse the pun, but the cherry on the cake.

It is the million-dollar, $60 million, whatever you call it, question. It's not so much what we do, but what we prioritize. For me, it is the Premier League, but how are we gonna do it? I don't honestly know, because we've never, ever had it before. It's unprecedented for us as a football club to be in these four competitions. Bring it on. I can probably answer your questions this time next season, and say, 'Yes, it was amazing, or it might have been a little bit bridge too far for us. But listen, it's something we've dreamt of as a club, and I'm really excited.

Featured Image: Photographer: Mike Egerton / Publication: PA Images