Frank McLintock

Frank McLintock

Personal information
Full name	Francis McLintock
Date of birth	28 December 1939 (1939-12-28)
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Playing position	Wing half, centre half
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1957–1964	Leicester City	168	(25)
1964–1973	Arsenal	314	(26)
1973–1977	Queens Park Rangers	127	(5)
National team
1963–1971	Scotland	9	(1)
Teams managed
1977–1978	Leicester City
1984–1987	Brentford
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Francis "Frank" McLintock MBE (born 28 December 1939) is a Scottish former football defender who played for Leicester City, Arsenal and QPR.

Leicester City

Born in Glasgow and brought up in the Gorbals, McLintock started his career in the Scottish Juniors with Shawfield, before moving to Leicester City in 1957 as a wing half, making his debut for them in 1959. He spent seven years at Filbert Street, where he forged a celebrated half-back partnership with Colin Appleton and Ian King and was part of the revered "ice kings" team which chased the double in 1962-63. With Leicester he reached, but lost, two FA Cup finals (1961 and 1963) and a winning League Cup final (1964).

During this time he also made his debut for Scotland, against Norway on 4 June 1963, and in his third appearance for Scotland, against Spain on 13 June 1963, scored one of the goals in a 6–2 win. He made a total of 168 Football League appearances for Leicester.

Arsenal

In October 1964, he was signed by Arsenal for a then club record £80,000 and went straight into the first team. McLintock spent the next nine seasons with the Gunners, moving from midfield to centre half. He was a first-choice player throughout, and became the club's captain in 1967, and would go on to skipper the club during their period of success under Bertie Mee. He reached another two League Cup finals (losing both, in 1968 and 1969), and became so disheartened he handed in a transfer request in 1969. Arsenal manager Bertie Mee managed to persuade him to stay, and McLintock went on to win three major trophies in the space of two years.

McLintock led Arsenal to a Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final win in 1969–70, beating Anderlecht 4–3 on aggregate. The following year, he lifted the club's first League and FA Cup Double in 1970–71; he also won the 1971 Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year award.

As captain, he led Arsenal to their sixth Wembley final in 1972 (which they lost to Leeds), and second place in the First Division following year, before being sold to QPR in June 1973. In total, he had played 403 matches for Arsenal, scoring 32 goals.

Queens Park Rangers

He spent four seasons with the Hoops, and was part of the side that qualified for the UEFA Cup after finishing a close second to Liverpool in 1975–76. McLintock made a total of 127 League appearances for QPR. He finally retired from the game in the 1977 close season. In all, he played over 700 times for his three clubs combined. He was made an MBE in 1972.

International career

He was capped on nine occasions for Scotland.

Management

After retiring from playing, he joined his old club Leicester City as manager in 1977. However, he endured a difficult time in charge, and City went through a spell where they had one win in 26 matches.

He was later manager of Brentford between 1984 and 1987, and then a coach at Millwall, helping the club gain promotion to the old Division One. Mclintock and Docherty were sacked in February 1990. Mclintock was more successful as an after dinner speaker, and as a pundit for first BBC Radio, and more recently Sky Sports. In 2009, McLintock was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame.

References

• Harris, Jeff & Hogg, Tony (ed.) (1995). Arsenal Who's Who. Independent UK Sports. ISBN 1-899429-03-4. 

External links

• Frank McLintock at scottishfa.co.uk