AFC Bournemouth will be looking to claim their first-ever point at the Etihad Stadium as they travel to Manchester City on Sunday in their Premier League opener. However, if it wasn’t for Steve Fletcher, they might very well be opening their season against Altrincham or Kidderminster Harriers in the National League.

By Zach Lowy

18 months after leaving Dean Court as the club’s all-time appearance maker, Fletcher returned to Bournemouth and helped them stave off the drop after scoring the winning goal vs. Grimsby Town on the penultimate match of the 2008/09 season. Given their financial issues at the time, relegation might not have just meant dropping down to the fifth tier, but liquidation. Instead, Bournemouth lived to see another day, earning three promotions over six seasons and making it to the top-flight for the first time in 2015. While they were sent back down to the Championship in 2020, they returned to the promised land just two years later and narrowly avoided the drop with a 15th-place finish under Gary O’Neil.

“We’re a very humble club that always sticks to our history; we never let anybody forget our history. We’re not just a regular Premier League club; we’ve had to work our socks off on and off the pitch to even remotely have a chance,” stated Fletcher in an exclusive FotMob interview. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime fairytale story that’s happened to AFC Bournemouth, and there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about how lucky we are.”

“I always say to everybody, ‘You’ve got to realize, this is not normal for Bournemouth; enjoy every minute of every game, doesn’t matter if we win or lose or draw.’ Normal is League One or Championship at best. We are playing in the Premier League, the best and most competitive league in the world, and we’re doing it week in, week out. Love it, enjoy it, cherish it, and never forget where we come from.”

After scoring 122 goals in 726 appearances (243 more than any other Bournemouth player) between 1992 and 2013, Fletcher has since represented the club in several roles like scout, ambassador and assistant coach, working under various managers before eventually becoming a player liaison officer following Andoni Iraola’s appointment in 2023. The Spaniard guided the Cherries to a 12th-place finish before matching the club’s best-ever ninth-place result in 2024/25. And despite losing the bulk of his starting core in Milos Kerkez, Dean Huijsen, Ilya Zabarnyi, Dango Ouattara, and Antoine Semenyo, Bournemouth finished sixth in 2025/26 and qualified for European football for the first time ever.

If Bournemouth were once the plucky underdogs that flew under the radar, that’s no longer the case, with top Champions League clubs all shelling out lucrative fees for their star players last season. And when Iraola opted to depart Bournemouth in the summer, it was Liverpool who immediately snapped him up.

“Everyone forgets that you’re just as vulnerable to losing your manager as you are the players when you’re a team like Bournemouth that’s very successful, and we’ve lost some big players,” added Fletcher. “The only thing I’d say to our fans across the globe and to anyone who wants to be an AFC Bournemouth fan: that’s just the nature of the beast. At least we’re selling them to the big teams; we’re not selling them to our rivals.”

“They’re going to PSG, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Arsenal, City…some of the biggest global clubs in the world. That’s the next stepping stone for those players, and we’ve just got to try and replace them with good, young, up-and-coming talents. It is very difficult when you lose a team, because you just become united and get into the rhythm, and then players leave, but we’ve just got to accept that it can happen.”

Bournemouth have replaced Iraola with Marco Rose, who becomes the second manager from outside the British Isles to coach the club. The German arrives at a club that, in contrast to last season, is relatively untouched by squad turnover. Apart from veteran center back Marcos Senesi, who has joined Tottenham Hotspur on a free transfer, Bournemouth haven’t lost a single starter, whilst they’ve lost just two backup players.

They’ve replaced Senesi with Portugal international António Silva, who joins from Benfica for €25 million, while they’ve swapped out one Spanish right back for another with Juanlu Sánchez replacing Álex Jiménez. Lastly, Uruguayan striker Álvaro Rodríguez will be seeking to replace Enes Ünal and challenge Evanilson for the starting spot in attack after joining from Elche. It’s precisely this stability that could allow Bournemouth to challenge both in the Premier League as well as the UEFA Europa League and the FA Cup and EFL Cup.

“When you lose big players in your football club, they’re very, very difficult to replace,” noted Fletcher. “You’re not going to get the finished article, because we would have to spend £60 million to get a player like Antoine Semenyo. That just won’t happen…we usually spend around £25/30m and look for a diamond in the rough like Rayan. Players and managers will come, but you’ve just got to make sure that you make the new players feel welcome, that the transition is smooth for them, and that they feel part of the squad, the town, and the history. The lads who’ve come in have been brilliant, and Marco Rose has gotten off to a good start in pre-season with 22 goals in five games, but he’s very aware that the pressure comes when we start the season vs. Manchester City. They’ve got a new manager after Pep Guardiola’s departure, but they’re still one of the favorites to win the Premier League.”

Enzo Maresca is in desperate need of a win after losing 3-0 to Arsenal in the Community Shield, but he’ll nevertheless take solace in the fact that Manchester City have avoided defeat in their last four meetings vs. Bournemouth, winning three in a row before drawing in the penultimate match of the 2025/26 season.

The Italian manager won his first two meetings vs. Bournemouth with Leicester and Chelsea before drawing the next three. Can he get back to winning ways against the Cherries, or will Bournemouth kick off the Marco Rose era with an epic victory? Stay tuned for what promises to be a thrilling spectacle in Manchester.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

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