English footballer (born 1972)
Garry William Flitcroft
(born 6 November 1972) is an English
football
manager and former professional player who played as a
midfielder
.
Between 1991 and 2006, Flitcroft spent four seasons in the
Premier League
with
Manchester City
, winning the club's Player of the Year award in only his second year in senior football. He joined
Blackburn Rovers
in 1996, with whom he spent ten years, of which eight were in the Premier League, and won the
2001?02 Football League Cup
. He also played briefly in the
Football League
, beginning his career
on loan
to
Bury
and ending it with
Sheffield United
. He was capped 10 times by
England U21
, 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
.
Playing career
[
edit
]
Flitcroft came through the youth ranks at
Manchester City
where he made 116 appearances in the
Premier League
, 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.
[2]
He played for the
England U21s
10 times in 1993. He was also called up to
Terry Venables
' get-together England squad in April 1995,
[3]
but ultimately was never capped for the senior side.
In March 1996, he was signed by reigning
Premier League
Champions
Blackburn Rovers
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
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
's 2001-02 League Cup victory although he did lift the trophy with match captain
Henning Berg
.
Managerial career
[
edit
]
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
.
[4]
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.
in May 2010.
[5]
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
in the Play Off Final. On 2 July 2015, Flitcroft stepped down as manager and his assistant
Matt Jansen
was put in charge.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Flitcroft's brother
David
was also a midfielder who played in the lower divisions but who is now Director of Football of
Port Vale
. Flitcroft married Karen, whom he had met at Turton High School, and the couple had three children.
[6]
The couple subsequently divorced.
[7]
Flitcroft, now owner of a timber frame business called "Flitcraft" with his son Thomas, faced trial in 2019 following a legal dispute.
[8]
In September 2020 he won the case against a rival business.
[9]
Flitcroft and the Leveson Inquiry
[
edit
]
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.
[10]
After a long legal battle, during the
2001?02
season an injunction preventing Flitcroft being named ran out.
[11]
The lawsuit resulting from this allegation, presided over by
Lord Chief Justice
Lord Woolf
, was notable for the way it weighed personal
privacy
rights against the right to
freedom of expression
under the
European Convention on Human Rights
(applicable since the
Human Rights Act 1998
came into force in 2000).
[
citation needed
]
In September 2011, Flitcroft was named as a "core participant" in the
Leveson Inquiry
into the
News International phone hacking scandal
.
[6]
[12]
Honours
[
edit
]
As a player
[
edit
]
Manchester City
- Player of the Year: 1992?93
Blackburn Rovers
As a manager
[
edit
]
Chorley
Managerial statistics
[
edit
]
- As of July 2015
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team
|
From
|
To
|
Record
|
Ref
|
P
|
W
|
D
|
L
|
Win %
|
Chorley
|
May 2010
|
July 2015
|
197
|
102
|
44
|
51
|
0
51.8
|
[13]
|
Total
|
197
|
102
|
44
|
51
|
0
51.8
|
?
|
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
- A v B & C
2002 EWCA Civ 337, a discussion of Garry Flitcroft's lawsuit
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