Willo Flood
William Robert Flood is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He earned 15 caps for his country at under-20 and under-21 levels. He represented eight clubs in England and Scotland including Manchester City, Cardiff City, Dundee United, Celtic, Middlesbrough and Aberdeen.
Early life
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Flood grew up on a housing estate in the Ballyfermot area of the city. He began his football career at Cherry Orchard, joining at seven years old. At the age of 14, Flood dislocated his patella playing in the All-Ireland Final, describing it the injury as "very sore". Despite the injury, Cherry Orchard won the final, resulting in Flood receiving the winners' medal, which was his only one until he won the Scottish League Cup in 2014 with Aberdeen. While at Cherry Orchard, Flood was mentored by Barry Pointon, who had known him since he was 15. Flood's performances for Cherry Orchard attracted interest from Celtic, Manchester United and Arsenal, but he opted to join Manchester City instead, due to their partnership at the time.Club career
Manchester City
Immediately after joining Manchester City, Flood was assigned to the academy. Having faced with an injury at his previous youth club, he had his injuries sorted by City's medical team and was grateful towards the club. saying: "If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be playing football". Having been called up to the first team in the 2003–04 season, Flood made his debut in the qualifying round of the 2003–04 UEFA Cup, in a 7–0 aggregate win over Total Network Solutions. Following this, he continued to maintain his development in City's reserve team.On 21 September 2004, Flood was called up to City's first team for a match against Barnsley in the Football League Cup and scored his first career goal, in a 7–1 win to help the club advance to the next round. Three days later, he made his Premiership debut, coming on as a 76th-minute substitute, in a 1–0 loss against Arsenal. On 1 November, Flood scored his first career league goal in his first league start, in a 1–1 draw at home to Norwich City. After the match, Kevin Keegan was impressed with Flood's display, saying he "has got the vital ingredient for someone his size and that is a big heart". Following this performance, Flood signed a new contract with City, keeping him until 2007. Flood appeared in four league matches, making three starts between 24 October and 13 November. Following an injury crisis, he appeared two times in the first team, coming against Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur in March 2005. At the end of the 2004–05 season, Flood went on to make twelve appearances and scoring two times in all competitions. Local newspaper Manchester Evening News said about the player: "Flood played four matches in a row in October–November when he opened his scoring account but his form seemed to tail off and other Academy products have jumped ahead of him. Needs to kick on with his career again."
Following his loan spell at Coventry City came to an end, Flood suffered a hernia injury that saw him out for the rest of the year. On 15 February 2006, he then made his return from injury, playing for City's reserve team, in a 4–0 win against Sunderland's reserve team. On 25 March 2006, Flood made his first team appearance for the club, starting the whole game, in a 2–0 loss. After the match, manager Stuart Pearce praised his performance. At the end of the 2005–06 season, he went on to make five appearances in all competitions.
Loan spells from Manchester City
On 15 March 2004, Flood was loaned out to Third Division side Rochdale for a month. The following day, he made his debut for the club, starting a match and played 88 minutes before being substituted, in a 1–1 draw against Huddersfield Town. Flood appeared in the next six matches for Rochdale, as the club were trying to avoid relegation. After a month loan spell with Rochdale, he returned to his parent club, making six appearances for the club.At the start of the 2005–06 season, Flood joined Championship side Coventry City on a month's loan. On 20 August 2005, he made his debut for the club, starting a match and played 73 minutes before being substituted, in a 3–0 win against Queens Park Rangers. Since joining Coventry, Flood received a handful of first team football, playing in the midfield position. For his performance, he had loan spell with the club extended into a second month. However, Flood received criticism for his performance while playing for Coventry's reserve team. On 28 September, he was able to make up with his performance by scoring his second career league goal, in a 3–1 win at home to Watford. On 28 October, Flood returned to his parent club after the club decided to terminate his loan contract. During his time at Coventry, he made eight appearances, scoring once.
Cardiff City
Flood joined Championship club Cardiff City for a fee of £200,000, paid in separate instalments, Upon joining the club, he describe leaving Manchester City as a "wrench", but believe that Dave Jones could help him improve as a player, due to his track record as a manager.Flood made his debut for Cardiff, coming on as an 82nd-minute substitute, in a 2–1 win against Barnsley in the opening game of the season. On 19 August 2006, he scored his only goal for Cardiff, a memorable winning goal at Elland Road. However, Flood found his first team opportunities limited, due to competition, and was placed on the substitute bench as a result. He also faced his own injury concerns along the way throughout the 2006–07 season. As a result, Flood was restricted to making twenty–eight appearances and scoring once in all competitions for the Bluebirds.
Dundee United loans
However, after struggling to settle at Ninian Park, Flood joined Scottish Premier League side Dundee United on a season-long loan for the 2007/08 season. Upon joining the club, Cardiff manager Dave Jones wished to see how he would perform over a long season of first-team football. Flood's debut resulted in a red card before half time on the opening day of the season against Aberdeen, after collecting two cautions, and his second match, for the reserves, resulted in the same outcome. On this occasion, he was "bizarrely sent off...for taking a quick free kick when the referee was apparently not ready." After serving a one match suspension, Flood returned to the starting line–up, in a 0–0 against Hibernian on 18 August 2007. He quickly established himself in the first team, playing in the midfield position, and his performances were praised by manager Craig Levein, describing him as "a really good, creative player". At times, Levein put Flood in the right–back position, due to the club's defensive crisis.On 15 December 2007, he scored his first goal for Dundee United against St Mirren in a 3–0 win, a goal which later earned him the SPL Goal of the Season award. In follow-up interviews the next day after winning the award, Flood said he would be disappointed to leave the club at the end of the season, admitting he would be "gutted because I have loved it here." In the Scottish League Cup final against Rangers, Flood started the whole game for 120 minutes following a 2–2 draw and was the first Dundee United player to successfully the convert the penalty in the shootout, which the club went on to lose on penalties. After the match, he was named Man of the Match by Scottish newspapers, due to his impressive performance. On 6 April 2008, Flood was at fault when he "inexplicably passed straight to Barry Ferguson", which led to Kris Boyd scoring the opposition team's third equalising goal, in a 3–3 draw Rangers on 6 April 2008. After the match, teammate Mark Kerr leapt to defend Flood, saying he was not to blame for his mistakes. Despite suffering injuries on three separate occasions throughout the 2007–08 season, Flood made forty–four appearances and scoring once in all competitions.
Despite returning to Cardiff at the end of the season, a second season-long loan was agreed in July 2008. Flood made four starts in the first four league matches of the season before he suffered a hamstring injury that saw him miss two matches. On 27 September 2008, Flood returned from injury and set up the club's second goal of the game, in a 3–0 win against Hearts. Since returning from injury, he continued to remain in the first team, playing in the midfield position. In the semi-finals of the Scottish League Cup against Celtic, Flood started the whole game for 120 minutes following a 0–0 draw and missed the eleventh penalty, which Dundee United went on to lose on penalties. Four years on, Flood admitted that the penalty left him with bitter memories when he compared the penalty miss to Manchester United's match in the League Cup against Sunderland on 22 January 2014. When his move to Celtic came to light, Manager Craig Levein urged Flood to stay at Dundee United, rather than joining Celtic, and the player, himself, agreed. By the time Flood departed from the club, he made twenty–four appearances in all competitions.
Celtic
Flood joined Celtic on 30 January 2009, signing a two-and-a-half-year contract for an undisclosed fee, for the team he supported as a boy. Upon joining the club, Flood's move to Celtic was not well received by the Bhoys supporters, with some of them believing he was "not good enough for Parkhead". Flood was also given a number sixteen shirt, previously worn by his idol Roy Keane. On 15 February, he made his debut for Celtic, playing 62 minutes before being substituted in a 0–0 draw against bitter rivals, Rangers at Celtic Park. After the match, Flood said his move to Celtic was "a big shock for him" and "a great honour to get that chance" to make his debut for the club. However, he found his first team opportunities hard to come by and found his playing time, coming from the substitute bench. In his first half season at Celtic, Flood made five appearances in all competitions.By the start of the 2009–10 season, with Celtic under the new management of Tony Mowbray, Flood found himself out of the first team and expressed unhappiness that he was considering leaving the club. At one point, Dundee United considered signing him, but manager Craig Levein denied that the move was happening. Despite not being a first team player regularly on 18 August 2009, Flood made his UEFA Champions League debut coming on as substitute for Shaun Maloney in the 61st minute, in a 3–1 loss against Arsenal in the Champions League Qualifying Round, resulting in the club's elimination from the tournament. He made two more starts, coming from the Scottish League Cup match against Falkirk and a UEFA Europa League match against Rapid Wien. In December 2009, Flood admitted he "regretted" joining Celtic, describing it as "a mistake". Manager Mowbray said he would sell Flood at the right price, along with the "frustrated fringe players". By the he left the club in January, he made four appearances in all competitions.
After leaving Celtic, Flood stated he didn't consider himself a Celtic player, citing his frustrating spells there. Despite this, Flood stated that Neil Lennon, who was then the club's reserve manager, helped him keep his focus while facing difficulties and for keeping him sane.