Wrexham A.F.C., the Welsh football team Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought in 2021 and have since made the subject of F/X’s Emmy-winning unscripted series Welcome to Wrexham, released their veteran striker Steven Fletcher a few weeks ago.
In an unintentional dash of salt into that wound, the series’ two most recent episodes, “Built to Last” and “Anything Can Happen” feature Fletcher, who is 38, prominently. Coming on the heels of Wrexham’s unprecedented third consecutive promotion up the many leagues of professional football in the UK, this Cinderella story seems to have ended partially in ashes.
It’s ironic to know that Fletcher isn’t playing for Wrexham next season, because “Built to Last” is in large part a love letter to Fletcher and long-serving and goalkeeper Mark Howard (released the same day as Fletcher) as examples of aging not just gracefully, but powerfully.
The veteran striker’s appearances in “Anything Can Happen” highlight how badly the team needed his late-game goals to secure the draws and wins that eventually earned them a promotion to the Championship League. The episode closes with a direct comparison between Fletcher and beloved but underperforming Paul Mullin, suggesting that in a contest between Fletcher and Mullin for a spot on the roster, Fletcher would have a clear advantage.
Fletcher, along with Rob, Ryan, and Wrexham Executive Director Humphrey Ker were unanimous in their devastated responses. Fletcher’s announcement, posted on Instagram, was both dry and heartfelt: He shared the news “with a heavy heart, and not by choice.”
On a guest appearance on the Wrexham fan podcast Rob.Ryan.Red., the team co-chairmen sounded nearly as gutted as Fletcher; McElhenney described it as “part of the brutal reality of football.” In “Anything Can Happen”, he waxes philosophical about the challenges of processing being cut, whether from a team or from a film, saying it’s inevitable but dangerous for players to “internalize it and think maybe it’s about me” because it’s often far more about the team’s needs in that moment.
In the same Rob.Ryan.Red. episode, Reynolds noted that because they don’t participate at all in the decision-making process for roster changes (that’s the domain of Team Manager Phil Parkinson and his fellow coaches), they have the luxury of getting quite close with their players. It’s a double-edged sword, though, making players’ releases from the team hit all the harder.
It’s not just the team chairmen who are bereft, either. The entire Wrexham community, from the fans and players to the coaches and trainers, holds Fletcher and Howard in high esteem and reveres their consistent, consistently significant contributions. The Red Dragons’ promotion was hard-won, and without Fletcher’s eight late-game goals and Howard’s clutch saves across his 11 game appearances last season, the team might not even be looking forward to playing in the 2nd tier Championship League come September.
In an upbeat conversation with The Daily Beast’s Obsessed days before being released from Wrexham, Fletcher provided glimpses of what might have been.
Had he stayed on to play and to eagerly embrace his role as an unofficial Chief Mentorship Officer, we might have seen more advice to younger players on in-game technique and appreciating the value of training (that’s practice for us Americans). Fletcher was energized for the season ahead and was thoughtfully open to questions about his eventual future off-pitch.
Having played for the Scottish National Team as well as Premier and Championship League teams in the past, Fletcher is a big believer in the power of team culture, and is particularly enthusiastic about what he appreciated at Wrexham over the course of his two seasons there.
It’s so rare to be able to “honestly say I would go for a coffee or out to dinner with every single one of [my teammates]...this team has a togetherness that I’ve never seen before.” Fletcher knows his good luck and treasures the effect those good vibes have had on his own game, noting with relish that “to be able to say that I’m still enjoying [playing] like I was a 16 year-old is unbelievable.”
Fletcher gives a lot of the credit for Wrexham’s team culture to Manager Phil Parkinson, who “makes sure he’s bringing in the right person, not just the right footballer.” That approach helps Parkinson avoid the trap of overvaluing great statistics at the cost of intangibles like team-wide chemistry.
Ryan Reynolds routinely visits the team’s changing room when he attends matches, and sees Fletcher himself as a key component of the atmosphere everyone thrives in, noting on Rob.Ryan.Red that “Fletch really reminded a lot of other players that this is fun.” For Reynolds, that quality was “a real differentiator in the season, [because] you would see guys actually remembering that.”
Success on the pitch can be heavily vibes-influenced, too. Fletcher didn’t describe the hot streak he was on as the calendar ticked over from December to January as a long-term flow state, but there’s something wonder-filled, almost spiritual, in his description of that stretch, where “I had a weird kind of confidence” throughout.
Fletcher elaborated, “I’ve never had a feeling like that in football before, actually sitting on the bench, thinking, just put me in!” because even if he didn’t make a game-winning goal every time, he knew he could “make an impact.” Thinking out loud about “the way I move in the [goal] box, sometimes I don’t even look at” the player with the ball. “I’ll just turn the other way and drift off to the back post without even knowing where he is, because I know what he’s going to do.”
There’s a brief moment in “Anything Can Happen” that illustrates Fletcher’s points about making an impact and unconsciously getting to the right place at the right time. In a crucial match against Crawley Town, he plants himself where another player can easily get him the ball and he makes an extra pass to a player in the just-right position to score.
Fletcher’s goals in this period, especially a game-winner in a can’t-lose match against Wigan Athletic in late December, led one enthusiastic commentator quoted in “Built to Last” to describe him as “an absolute ageless wonder!” Celebratory social media posts were playfully effusive, too, calling Fletcher “a Colossus” and “Scottish Jesus”.
It’s hard to be brought so firmly back to Earth after reaching those heights, but even If Fletcher doesn’t find himself on another team next season, he’s still sanguine about playing a significant role in the sport. Coaching, most likely.
He’s gotten a peek at that path thanks to younger players approaching him for advice on particularly tricky plays, noting that “it’s always nice when you’re doing something at your age and a young lad asks, How did you do that?” Breaking down the technique with them and then watching them execute it in a game just feels good as a teammate, and spending one’s days helping players reach their full potential “must be a great feeling for a coach.”
Fletcher was also particularly looking forward to drawing on his first-hand knowledge of the bigger stadiums in the Premier and Championship leagues to help his teammates adjust to intimidating venues, “especially the younger players” who might need some bucking up.
For all the work Fletcher does to maintain a healthy attitude and his fitness regimen, it’s impossible to ignore the effects of time on an elite athlete’s body. Surgeries, rehab stints, adjusting expectations for agility, speed, and endurance: These are all part of the job, and become more significant as players inch past their prime on-pitch years and closer to retirement.
Fletcher cites his strict adherence to a preschooler’s sleep schedule as the key to recovery between games. He goes to bed around 8:30 every night, even earlier than his children, who “actually come in and say goodnight—they’re tucking their dad in, rather than me tucking them in.”
The results of his early-to-bed routine are good enough to help him shrug off getting razzed about his age. It’s a crucial skill, because “you get called an old man in football very, very early,” as young as 30. At 38 years old, both Fletcher and Howard “get called the two dinosaurs of the team”, and we even hear one of the youngest players admiringly call Howard “Jurassic Mark.”
As the Steven Fletchers and Mark Howards of the English Football League depart their teams and consider pivoting to second careers, younger players arrive to take their places. It’s both inevitable and an opportunity: a bit of roster churn is necessary to maintain the delicate balance of veterans’ steadying reliability and early-career players’ youthful energy. No doubt another team along the line will benefit from the combination of zest for the game and long-term perspective that only come along with being a dinosaur.
