274: Gary Flitcroft, Manchester City, Merlin’s Premier League 95 Sticker Collection

Today Richard Allinson takes a look at a midfield stalwart who embodied the greatest era of football, the 1990s, simply through his era-defining haircut. His longevity at the top level provided us with a number of options in terms of stickers and cards but Rich and I agreed this one best demonstrated his most important asset. Over to Rich to actually talk about football for a bit.

There are certain footballers that could only exist in the 1990s. Not because of their ability or style of play, but because of their haircut. No one epitomises this more so than Garry Flitcroft. His hair-do was a part mushroom/part pudding bowl/part curtains undercut delight. Stick him in some NAF-NAF jeans and a pair of Kickers and he’d have fit right in at any middle school dress-down day across the land. 

His haircut was at its peak during his days at Manchester City, the club with which he made his name. He came through the ranks with the Citizens (I refuse to use the silly Cityzens spelling, sorry) breaking into the first team in 1991. However, it was his second season that really brought him to national attention when, at only 21, he was awarded City’s Player of the Year award in 1992/93 having played 33 games and scored five goals across all competitions. In 1993 Flitcroft took his pudding-bowled bonce off to England duties, eventually playing ten times for the Under 21s. El Tel Venables also took a shine to Garry’s combative midfield play and floppy fringe and brought him into the England training squad in 1995. However, he wasn’t to ever feature for the senior side, presumably because Jamie Redknapp’s hair had more bounce. 

Flitcroft was eventually to leave Manchester during the 1995/96 season when he signed for Blackburn Rovers for £3.5m in March 1996 after 116 games and thirteen goals. Not a bad signing for Rovers, his hair had lost its pudding bowl spark but it was still effective at what it did. A bit like Flitcroft himself. However, it would be remiss of me to not mention at this stage that Jack Walker had reportedly blocked Kenny Dalglish from signing Zinedine Zidane for the same amount at the start of the same season because Rovers "already had Tim Sherwood". It was a bit of a mixed bag on the pitch at Rovers for Garry. He was relegated from the top flight with the club in 1999, but also lifted the 2001/02 League Cup alongside Henning Berg despite being suspended for the final. Thankfully, he didn’t do a John Terry and go all out as a full-kit wanker. 

Around the same time that Rovers were winning the aforementioned silverware, off the pitch, Flitcroft’s private life was being laid bare for public consumption. He had previously had two extra-marital affairs, for which he eventually took out a High Court injunction to prevent the media reporting the story. However, this ran out in 2002 on the day Blackburn had been playing away at Leicester City. Flitcroft was subsequently named as a ‘core-participant’ in the Leveson inquiry into tabloid phone hacking. Whilst giving his evidence, Flitcroft blamed the press intrusion for his father’s suicide, saying that his dad suffered "aggression and anxiety" because of the taunting Garry received from opposing fans and that he had stopped going to watch his son because of it, which is really quite sad. 

Flitcroft was to eventually stay with Rovers until 2006, where overall, he played 248 games, scored fourteen goals and spent three seasons as club captain. He then moved on to Sheffield United where he finished his career after playing six games for the Blades. In retirement, Flitcroft has gone on to set up the excellently named Flitcraft timber frame business, as well has having stints managing non-league sides Leigh Genesis and Chorley. 

Overall, he maybe didn’t quite fulfil his early promise at City, and on reflection Blackburn might have been better off signing Zidane. However, he had a good career playing almost 400 games at the top level as well as being a loyal servant to Rovers, and he will forever be synonymous with nineties football in England, both because of his ability on the pitch and that excellent Barnet.