39 Facts About David Flitcroft

David John Flitcroft was born on 14 January 1974 and is an English professional football manager and former player who is the director of football at EFL League One club Port Vale.

David Flitcroft 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.

David Flitcroft 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.

David Flitcroft made a swift return to the Football League though, as he returned to former club Rochdale as assistant manager in January 2007.

David Flitcroft was appointed as Bury manager the following month and quickly found success, being named as Manager of the Month for February 2014.

David Flitcroft took charge at Swindon Town in June 2017, before changing clubs to manage divisional rivals Mansfield Town in March 2018.

David Flitcroft was sacked in May 2019 after the club were beaten in the League Two play-off semi-finals.

David Flitcroft was appointed director of football at Port Vale in February 2021.

David Flitcroft signed professional forms with the club in May 1992.

David Flitcroft made his debut the following season at Deepdale under caretaker-manager Sam Allardyce.

David Flitcroft was to spend the season briefly involved in the first-team, but instead had a brief loan spell with Lincoln City and then was allowed to join Chester City in December 1993.

David Flitcroft credited the competitive dressing room spirit put together by manager Graham Barrow with getting the club over the line.

David Flitcroft left the Deva Stadium when he rejected the club's offer of a new contract and instead joined Rochdale.

David Flitcroft signed a two-year contract extension in the summer.

David Flitcroft later described Steve Parkin as the best manager he had played under.

However David Flitcroft left Rochdale in the summer after the club's directors told him that he needed to impress during a pre-season trial in order to win a new contract and by the time new manager Alan Buckley was appointed David Flitcroft had already decided to leave.

David Flitcroft signed a two-year contract with Macclesfield Town on 9 July 2003 and was immediately installed as captain at Moss Rose.

David Flitcroft's contract was cancelled by mutual consent in January 2004.

David Flitcroft was named as the club's Player of the Year for what the Bury Times described "his wholehearted and consistent displays in the Shakers' engine room".

David Flitcroft signed a new one-year contract in June 2006.

David Flitcroft played a total of seven games for Hyde, three of which ended in victories.

Rochdale lost the 2008 League Two play-off final at Wembley Stadium and David Flitcroft later said that "the feeling was that we had let everyone down".

On 1 June 2011, David Flitcroft was appointed assistant manager at Barnsley, following manager Keith Hill from Rochdale to Oakwell.

David Flitcroft was made caretaker-manager of Barnsley after Hill was sacked on 29 December 2012.

David Flitcroft was appointed as manager of Bury on 9 December 2013, who were then 20th in League Two.

David Flitcroft was named as League One Manager of the Month for September 2016 after overseeing five wins from five games that the League Managers Association described as "guided by David Flitcroft's beliefs in attacking play and some shrewd moves at the end of the transfer window".

Gareth Southgate's promotion to England manager left a vacancy for the head coach role of the under-21 team and David Flitcroft applied for the position, making into the final four of the interview process, though the job instead went to Aidy Boothroyd.

On 5 June 2017, David Flitcroft was appointed as manager of Swindon Town, who had sacked Luke Williams following the club's relegation into League Two.

The "Robins" were seventh in the table when David Flitcroft was appointed as manager at League Two promotion rivals Mansfield Town on 1 March 2018, who paid Swindon a compensation package to secure his release.

David Flitcroft was appointed as Mansfield Town manager on 1 March 2018, following the resignation of Steve Evans.

David Flitcroft presided over a poor run of form with the "Stags" picking up just three points from his first seven games in charge.

Eight players departed, whilst David Flitcroft brought in defender Matt Preston and midfielder Neal Bishop on free transfers, whilst spending undisclosed fees to bring in attackers Otis Khan and Craig Davies.

David Flitcroft was sacked on 14 May 2019, two days after Mansfield lost a penalty shoot-out to Newport County in the play-off semi-finals.

On 31 August 2019, David Flitcroft was named assistant to new manager Keith Hill at his hometown team, Bolton Wanderers, the duo working together after spells together at both Rochdale and Barnsley.

On 8 February 2021, David Flitcroft was appointed as director of football at Port Vale.

David Flitcroft initially applied for the vacant managerial role until club chair Carol Shanahan decided to instead appoint him to manage the club's football operations and to link the board of directors with the first-team.

David Flitcroft told the press that his targets would be to appoint a manager, improve player recruitment and to ensure the playing squad suffered less injuries.

David Flitcroft has high attention to detail and is not afraid to challenge upper management.

David Flitcroft has run a football academy in Bolton called FC Strikerz, which he set up in 2007 following the death of his father.