Fletcher's Transformation

With the help of coaches Rene Meulensteen, Tony Strudwick and Mike Clegg, we assess how Darren Fletcher's matured into one of the game's best midfielders...

Amid the hysteria of Champions League triumph in Moscow, Darren Fletcher was, inwardly at least, somewhere else. Saturated by rain rather than sweat, the unused substitute joined his colleagues in celebration, but was at a crossroads. He’d spent much of 2007/08 on the bench. Tabloid tittle-tattle tipped Fletcher for a move from Old Trafford; it seemed he was poised for a fresh start.

The new chapter began, however, with the signing of a fresh Reds contract. Its timing, at the start of 2008/09, prompted the Sir Alex Ferguson to describe it as “the relief of the season”. And the manager’s unwavering faith in his countryman has been spectacularly rewarded ever since the ink dried. The 25-year-old’s transformation over the last 18 months has been turbo-charged. The player of bulging heart, but slight frame, is no longer Sir Alex’s secret big-game weapon; Fletch now stokes the flames in the engine-room. Two derby goals against Manchester City has capped a string of performances ticking every box on the MOT of a top-drawer midfielder this season; the Scot’s stock is at an all-time high.

Undoubtedly, the chief cause of his emergence has been patience: a virtue both Fletcher and Sir Alex share. Through times of doubt from sections of United’s support, and months of relative inactivity – just five top-flight starts in 2007/08 – Fletcher was placated by his manager’s reassurances that his time would come. Every probing interviewer’s question met a straight bat. In August 2008 he said: “I’m going to work hard and use every disappointment as fuel to get into the team.”

Fletch has been every inch a man of his word. He redoubled his efforts – and hasn’t looked back. It’s the model any aspiring Red would do well to follow. Naturally fit already, he threw himself into a punishing regime, evolving into a prime physical specimen. “He made a conscious decision to come back after Moscow and work hard,” says first-team fitness coach Tony Strudwick. “He’s now reaping the rewards of being a top-class professional.

“There was definitely a change in the way he approached his training last season. When I first came here, Fletch would go straight into the jacuzzi after training and he’d get a bit of stick about not going into the gym. It’s been a buy-in really, by Darren, in terms of what it takes to be a professional footballer. Now he’s one of the first in the gym in the morning, and can be among the last to leave after training. As fitness coaches, you can only give them so much. That motivation comes from within. Darren has an abundance of that.”

Fletcher openly cites the influence of strength and conditioning coach Mike Clegg as a major factor behind his transformation. Gone is the wispy, willowy youngster who shirked the weights; in his place, an unerringly dedicated pro who’s mastered his body. Clegg, a vocal motivator, ushered Fletch onto the right road by showing him a flesh-and-blood blueprint for physical perfection: Cristiano Ronaldo. “I’ve worked with Darren since he was a teenager,” says Clegg. “But he wasn’t kicking on. I told him to look at Ronaldo and the way he was utterly dedicated. He came into the gym every morning and after every training session. If Darren wanted to get the best out of himself, he’d have to match that. So he started on a plan and steadily worked harder and harder, and over 18 to 20 months got it right.

“Gym work is a very fine balance – few get it spot on. Darren’s learned the secret of striking the balance between what you do on the pitch and what you do in the gym. At the moment he’s got it absolutely nailed. He’s in the gym every day. Some days I’ll say he needs to do more of something; others I have to tell him he’s had enough. It’s a balance, but Darren is absolutely bang on at the moment. The only other player I’ve worked with who got it so spot on was Ronaldo.”

High praise indeed. But Clegg’s not done with the compliments. “Fletch’s lifestyle is perfect. It’s not just down to his training, diet, or being teetotal. He’s got a nice wife, nice children, a good lifestyle and he’s fulfilling his dreams. He’s a very motivated, happy guy who is successful in his work.”

Hard yards in the gym have become easier out on the pitch thanks to Fletcher’s strength, power and reactions being cultivated. But his natural level of stamina has always been high – recall 2004’s FA Cup semi-final victory over Arsenal, where 20-year-old Fletch ran Patrick Vieira and company into the ground as Roy Keane barked the orders. That blurred image of Fletcher in perpetual motion has been a lasting one for many supporters, who perceived him perhaps as an energetic trier, prospering by hassling more illustrious opponents into submission. For years, his main terrace salute The Proclaimers’ I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles), altered to include the line: “He will run 500 miles, and he will run 500 more.” But Fletch sought to broaden the parameters of his game with first team coach Rene Meulensteen, who worked closely with him as he sought to bounce back from a knee injury in early 2008. Then working as a skills development coach, Meulensteen witnessed first-hand Fletcher’s desire to evolve.

“We did lots of ball work, and he really embraced it,” he says. “We talked about adding weapons to his armoury and making him a more complete midfielder. He’s definitely become more skilful, and has more confidence to produce on the pitch. His passing is better. He tended to stick to passing square and back, now he’ll hit the early forward pass too. Overall he’s become a more complete technical footballer.

“The one thing that stands out, and this is what characterises Fletch, is his unbelievable drive and aggression to close people down. He has a massive work-rate to give the whole team energy. He sucks other players along with him. That total package, together with the experience of playing in bigger games, has made him into the footballer he is now.

“You can’t put a value on winning possession and rarely losing it. You need that skill. If you want to strive to win trophies and titles, you need players like Fletch, definitely. He’s what we call an ‘and-and’ player now. Before, he was good at doing a defensive job and closing players down, but he wasn’t producing that kind of quality going forward. That’s what he’s doing now.”

Fletcher’s growing importance to the United cause was painfully underlined in the defeat by Barcelona in Rome. The terrible irony of a season fuelled by his failure to feature in a Champions League final, ending in exactly the same way, was not lost on the Scot. His harsh red card in the semi-final stroll at Arsenal ruled out an almost certain start against the Catalans, and his ball-winning and possession game was conspicuous by its absence.

Even as he jogged from the Emirates pitch, however, Fletcher carried himself with the utmost dignity, barely casting so much as a backward glance at the referee who had just denied him a dream. The focus was on continuing to look forward, as he has throughout a career in which the horizons get bigger and brighter by the day.