Garry William Flitcroft (born 6 November 1972) is an English football manager and former professional player who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Between 1991 and 2006, Flitcroft spent four seasons in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

with Manchester City, winning the club's Player of the Year award in only his second year in senior football. He joined

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

in 1996, with whom he spent ten years, of which eight were in the Premier League, and won the

2001–02 Football League Cup The 2001–02 Football League Cup (known as the Worthington Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 42nd staging of the Football League Cup, a knockout competition for England's top 92 football clubs. The competition began on 20 August 2001, and ...

. He also played briefly in the Football League, beginning his career on loan to

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

and ending it with

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

. He was capped 10 times by

England U21 The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team. This team is for England players aged under 21 at the start of the calen ...

, scoring three goals. In 2009 he became manager of Leigh Genesis and the following year took over as manager of Chorley, where he won two promotions in five years, taking the team up to the

Conference North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Syst ...

Playing career

Flitcroft came through the youth ranks at Manchester City where he made 116 appearances in the

, scoring 13 goals. In only his second season of senior football he was awarded City's Player of the Season award for the 1992–93 season. He played for the England U21s 10 times in 1993. He was also called up to

Terry Venables Terence Frederick Venables (born 6 January 1943), often referred to as El Tel, is an English former football player and manager, and an author. During the 1960s and '70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queen ...

' get-together England squad in April 1995, but ultimately was never capped for the senior side. In March 1996, he was signed by reigning

Champions

for £3.5 million, but was sent off on his debut in a 3–0 defeat to Everton. Rovers were relegated to Division One in 1999 and new manager

Graeme Souness Graeme James Souness (; born 6 May 1953) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, and current TV pundit. A midfielder, Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s, player-manager of Ranger ...

appointed Flitcroft captain ahead of the 2000–01 season, in which Rovers gained promotion back to the Premier League. Flitcroft continued in his role as club captain for the next three years, but was suspended for

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

's 2001-02 League Cup victory although he did lift the trophy with match captain

Henning Berg Henning Stille Berg (; born 1 September 1969) is a Norwegian football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Cypriot First Division club Pafos FC. His career lasted from 1988 to 2004, most notably in the Premier League where h ...

Managerial career

On 23 March 2009, it was announced that Flitcroft would replace Lee Merricks as manager of Northern Premier League side Leigh Genesis. This also came with the news that the club had moved into their new ground at Leigh Sports Village. Flitcroft left Leigh Genesis after revealing to the media that he and many of his players had not been paid at Leigh for some time, and moved to Leigh's rivals,

Chorley F.C. Chorley Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Chorley, Lancashire, England. They currently compete in and play their home matches at Victory Park. The club was founded as a rugby union club in 1875 but switched to footba ...

in May 2010. Flitcroft was hugely successful at Chorley, earning them two promotions - as Northern Premier League Division One play-off winners in 2010–11 and then Premier Division Champions in 2013–14. He immediately guided Chorley to 4th place in the Conference North but lost 3–2 at home to

Guiseley Guiseley ( ) is a town in metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated south of Otley and Menston and is now a north-western suburb of Leeds. It sits in th ...

in the Play Off Final. On 2 July 2015, Flitcroft stepped down as manager and his assistant Matt Jansen was put in charge. He is still at the club in a director's role.

Personal life

Flitcroft's brother

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

was also a midfielder who played in the lower divisions but who is now Director of Football of

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

. Flitcroft married Karen, whom he had met at Turton High School, and the couple had three children. The couple subsequently divorced. Flitcroft, now owner of a timber frame business called "Flitcraft" with his son Thomas, faced trial in 2019 following a legal dispute. In September 2020 he won the case against a rival business.

Flitcroft and the Leveson Inquiry

During his marriage, Flitcroft had two affairs, one with a nursery nurse and the second with a lap dancer. After a disagreement with one of the women, the media began to pursue the story, so Flitcroft took out a High-Court injunction, banning media coverage of the affairs. After a long legal battle, during the 2001–02 season an injunction preventing Flitcroft being named ran out. The lawsuit resulting from this allegation, presided over by

Lord Chief Justice Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

Lord Woolf Harry Kenneth Woolf, Baron Woolf, (born 2 May 1933) is a British life peer and retired barrister and judge. He was Master of the Rolls from 1996 until 2000 and Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2000 until 2005. The Constitutional R ...

, was notable for the way it weighed personal privacy rights against the right to

freedom of expression Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recog ...

under the

European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by ...

(applicable since the Human Rights Act 1998 came into force in 2000). In September 2011, Flitcroft was named as a "core participant" in the Leveson Inquiry into the

News International phone hacking scandal The News International phone hacking scandal was a controversy involving the now-defunct ''News of the World'' and other British newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone hacking, police b ...

Honours

As a player

Manchester City *Player of the Year: 1992–93 Blackburn Rovers *

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

: 2001–02

As a manager

Chorley *

Northern Premier League Division One The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Division ...

: play-off winners 2010–11 * Northern Premier League: 2013–14

Managerial statistics

References

External links

A v B & C
2002 EWCA Civ 337, a discussion of Garry Flitcroft's lawsuit {{DEFAULTSORT:Flitcroft, Garry 1972 births Living people English footballers England under-21 international footballers Premier League players Manchester City F.C. players Bury F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Footballers from Bolton English Football League players Association football midfielders Chorley F.C. managers English football managers Leigh Genesis F.C. managers Northern Premier League managers