He was the first signing of the post-Redknapp era when Tony Pulis brought a fresh faced Steve Fletcher to Dean Court from his native Hartlepool way back in 1992.
Today, Pulis speaks about his first signing, being quoted in the Bournemouth Evening Echo as saying: "Steve has been as good a servant as anybody at any club up and down the country. On his day, he is unplayable. The biggest criticism you could level against him is that he hasn’t scored as many goals as he should have. If he had been an out-and-out goalscorer then he could have played at the highest level because he had all the tools. But the span of time he has had at Bournemouth shows just how unselfish he is, both as a person and as a player. He has always put the team in front of himself. omeone recommended Steve to me and we needed a striker because Jimmy Quinn had been tapped up by Reading and was making it quite clear he wanted to go. I went to watch Steve in a friendly at Swansea and thought he had the potential to be a decent player. Steve was always going to take a bit of stick in his early days because he was just finding his way and was inexperienced. As a manager, if you play to his strengths then you have got someone who is a handful for anybody. It is testament to him that he has had such a long and successful career with Bournemouth".