Fleming always seemed to be a matter of when he was going to join Bolton Wanderers rather than a matter of if. Dougie Freedman was very fond of his first team coach at Crystal Palace and now he has finally brought him over to the Reebok. Fleming will join former Palace assistant manager Lennie Lawrence on the bench. Fleming spent much of his playing career with Middlesbrough where he was a stalwart in the right back position. He put in well over 250 appearances for the Boro before moving to Crystal Palace in 2001. He stayed with the Eagles until 2004, playing with Dougie Freedman for all three of his seasons there.

Following retirement, Fleming coached at the youth level for Boro before being brought to Crystal Palace by Freedman in summer of 2011. He was promoted to first team coach at Selhurst Park after Tony Popovic left the club. Following Lennie Lawrence's departure, Fleming served as caretaker manager for one game, a 2-0 win at home against Blackburn Rovers.

A club statement from Crystal Palace this morning read:

Crystal Palace FC can confirm that Curtis Fleming has left the club to join Bolton Wanderers.

The board would like to put on record their thanks to Curtis for his hard work, firstly as development coach and latterly as first team coach and would like to wish him well for the future.

Welcome aboard, Curtis!