Excited Steven Fletcher tells Sheffield Wednesday fans to expect 'flamboyance' from new US owners
Former Sheffield Wednesday players gathered at the club over the weekend and shared a sense of excitement at what is possible at S6 following the arrival of new ownership.
Fan favourite former Sheffield Wednesday goal-getter Steven Fletcher knows plenty about playing under ambitious American ownership - and has advised supporters to brace themselves for a sprinkling of glamour as the club’s new owners set about their ambitious rebuild mission.
Fletcher spent four years at Hillsborough, scoring 38 times along the way before leaving for Stoke City in 2020. He finished his career rising through the leagues with Wrexham, where he operated under the ownership of Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, before calling time on a distinguished career last summer.
The Scotland international spent time back at the club last weekend as part of a charity weekend that raised vital funds for both Weston Park Cancer Charity and the club’s Community Programme. Speaking to The Star, Fletcher burst into a grin when asked about the takeover of the club, which was announced on-field last week to huge celebrations in a sold-out Hillsborough.
“I saw the scenes after the game, the atmosphere and all that,” he smiled. “For what the club has been through in the last years, to see that atmosphere was incredible. I said to the people close to me ‘That’s almost the atmosphere we had there in the play-offs’ and to see that sort of thing back at this club is just incredible. It sums the fans up in how incredible they are, to see it bouncing when they’re relegated, with everything that has gone on.
“Credit to the fans, they’ve been through a lot in the recent past. Credit to them. It’s such a great place, I’d never been to Sheffield before I came and it just holds a place in your heart. I didn’t want to leave, I wanted to stay. But that’s football for you. One of my kids was born here, so it’s always going to hold a place in your heart. It’s great here.”
Fletcher had ambitions of retiring at S6 but left the club at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic as Wednesday sought to tighten their belt. He scored five goals in a charity match against Wednesday supporters on Saturday - including one Di Canio-esque volley at the Kop End - and wore a look of contentment throughout the weekend as he mingled with fans and spent time with former teammates.
“I love being back here,” he said. “I’ve been back here watching a game, but I don’t think I came back to play, but Hillsborough has so many happy memories for me, I had such a long time here - four years. I keep in touch with a few of the guys but life moves fast sometimes and you don’t always get to keep in touch with some guys.
“We got asked to play and then we got thrown into a group chat with one another and straight away the banter gets going again, Ross Wallace is slagging everyone straight away. It was like normal times resumed!”
Scenes that saw Arise Capital Partners confirmed as the club’s new owners came with huge celebration from the stands and were followed by a dramatic countdown of next season’s points deduction from ‘15 to none’ on the big screen at Hillsborough. The David Storch-led consortium have big plans for Wednesday and started it with a bang.
Though no two sets of owners are alike, Fletcher saw similarities with that moment and how the Wrexham owners have gone about their management of a generational run through the divisions from non-league to the edges of the Championship play-off places. If the US team leading matters at the Racecourse is anything to go by, he said, Wednesday fans should buckle up for a serious ride.
He said: “Listen, the Americans are flamboyant, they’re extravagant and it’s so infectious, it really is. At Wrexham, I work for the club now and to see how they operate on a day to day basis is amazing. The club has only gone on and on. If this club ends up anything like that, it can only be a good thing.
“They’re driven, they want to win. It’s funny, football is a lot different to the sports they have over there, but for some reason when they come over here they do it right. They have at Wrexham, anyway. If that is anything to go by, this here at Sheffield Wednesday can only be a good thing.”