Career
Fletcher began his career at Hartlepool United before leaving for Bournemouth in 1992 for £30,000. He spent 15 years with Bournemouth, recording more than 600 appearance caps and 100 goals. He holds the Bournemouth club record for most league appearances, having played 514 league matches for the club at the end of the 2008-09 season. Fletcher was released by Bournemouth, then managed by Kevin Bond, at the end of the 2006–07 season. He subsequently joined recently-relegated League Two side Chesterfield. At the end of the 2007–08 season, Fletcher turned down a contract renewal with Chesterfield due to family commitments.
He joined Crawley Town on a free transfer on 23 May 2008, signing an initial one-year contract. Eight months later, Fletcher returned to Bournemouth on a contract until the end of the 2008–09 campaign with an option to extend it for another season. He made his 500th league appearance for the club on 24 February in a 1–0 win at Dagenham & Redbridge. In April 2010, Bournemouth renamed the North Stand at Dean Court after him in recognition of his achievements with the club. Two months later, Fletcher signed a one-year contract extension after helping the club win promotion to League One.
Fletcher was appointed assistant manager to Lee Bradbury in January 2011 after Eddie Howe left the club to manage Burnley, signing a two-and-a-half year contract. He scored his 100th league goal for Bournemouth in a 3–3 draw at Peterborough United on 1 April 2011 and said that helping the club win promotion to the Championship would be a perfect milestone for him. Bournemouth qualified for the play-offs, but were eliminated by Huddersfield Town on penalties. Fletcher resigned from his position as assistant manager in November, saying that it would be more beneficial for the team and the club if he focused on playing for the remainder of his contract.
Having been restricted to brief substitute appearances since resigning as Bradbury's assistant, the manager said that he would consider allowing Fletcher to join another club on loan in January 2012, but insisted he was still part of his plans. Two months later, he joined Plymouth Argyle on loan until the end of the season, reuniting him with former team-mate Carl Fletcher, who was now Plymouth's manager. "Me and Carl are good friends and go back years. He's been in touch and trying to get me to Plymouth for a short period of time, it had come to deadline day and I needed to make a decision," said Fletcher. "It's the only club I would contemplate going to because Carl is a close friend, if it hadn't been him I wouldn't have even thought about it."
Fletcher made his debut in a 1–0 win against Bradford City on 31 March, and appeared in five more matches, including two in the starting eleven, as the club secured their future in League Two after a turbulent season. Following Argyle's 2–2 draw at Morecambe, Fletcher was recalled by Bournemouth caretaker manager Paul Groves ahead of the final league match of the campaign.
At the end of the 2012-13 season, Fletcher announced his retirement from playing; with the Cherries in the Championship he felt the time was right to hang up his boots and seek another role within the club.
Read more about this topic: Steve Fletcher
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)
“My ambition in life: to become successful enough to resume my career as a neurasthenic.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Work-family conflicts—the trade-offs of your money or your life, your job or your child—would not be forced upon women with such sanguine disregard if men experienced the same career stalls caused by the-buck-stops-here responsibility for children.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)