David Flitcroft, English footballer and manager
David John Flitcroft (born 14 January 1974) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the director of football at EFL League Two club Port Vale. His older brother is the former Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City player Garry Flitcroft.
A midfielder, Flitcroft began his career at Preston North End, where he turned professional in May 1992. He enjoyed a brief loan spell at Lincoln City but failed to establish himself in the first-team at Preston and was allowed to join Chester City in December 1993. Chester would achieve promotion out of the Third Division at the end of the 1993–94 season, though were relegated out of the Second Division the following season. In all he played 190 league and cup games before joining Rochdale on a free transfer in July 1999. He spent four seasons at Spotland, playing 188 league and cup matches and being named as Player of the Year, before joining Macclesfield Town in July 2003. He moved on to Bury in February 2004, where he would feature in another 108 first-team games and be named as Player of the Year for the 2005–06 season, before signing with Hyde United of the Conference North in November 2006. He made a swift return to the Football League though, as he returned to former club Rochdale as assistant manager in January 2007. He would feature in two competitive games for the club, bringing his playing career to a final total of 29 goals from 527 appearances in all competitions. Aside from one season in the Second Division with Chester, he primarily played in the Third Division / League Two.
Having spent over four years on the coaching staff at Rochdale, Flitcroft followed manager Keith Hill to Barnsley in June 2011 and was appointed caretaker-manager following Hill's sacking in December 2012. He was given the job on a permanent basis and kept the club in the Championship at the end of the 2012–13 season, only to be sacked in November 2013. He was appointed as Bury manager the following month and quickly found success, being named as Manager of the Month for February 2014. He led the club to promotion out of League Two at the end of the 2014–15 season and kept the club in League One the following season. Despite being named as Manager of the Month for September 2016, he was sacked two months later following a poor run of form. He took charge at Swindon Town in June 2017, before changing clubs to manage divisional rivals Mansfield Town in March 2018. He was sacked in May 2019 after the club were beaten in the League Two play-off semi-finals. Keith Hill named him as his assistant at Bolton Wanderers in August 2019, though the pair were not retained beyond the 2019–20 season. He was appointed director of football at Port Vale in February 2021.