Frank McLintock

Infobox Football biography
playername = Frank McLintock


fullname = Francis McLintock
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1939|12|28|df=y
cityofbirth = Glasgow
countryofbirth = Scotland
dateofdeath =
cityofdeath =
countryofdeath =
height =
position = Wing half, centre half
years = 1957-1964 1964-1973 1973-1977
clubs = Leicester City Arsenal Queens Park Rangers
caps(goals) = 168 (25) 314 (26) 127 0(5)
nationalyears = 1963-1971
nationalteam = Scotland
nationalcaps(goals) = 009 (1)
manageryears = 1977-1978 1984-1987
managerclubs = Leicester City Brentford

Francis "Frank" McLintock MBE (born December 28, 1939) is a Scottish former footballer.

Born in Glasgow and brought up in the Gorbals, McLintock started his career as a wing half at Leicester City in 1957, making his debut in 1959. He spent seven years at Filbert Street, reaching, but losing, 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 June 4 1963, and in his third appearance for Scotland, against Spain on June 13 1963, scored one of the goals in a 6-2 win.

In October 1964, he was signed by Arsenal 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. Firstly, 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.

Firstly, McLintock led Arsenal to a Inter-Cities Fairs Cup fina win in 1969-70, beating Anderlecht 4-3 on aggregate. The following year, he lifted club's first League and FA Cup Double in 1970-71; he also won the 1971 Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year award, and having only played once for Scotland since 1964, earned a recall to the Scotland side in 1970, winning a further four caps to bring his total to nine.

McLintock 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. 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. 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.

After retiring from playing, he had an unsuccessful stint as manager of his old club Leicester City, finishing bottom of the First Division and relegated to the Second in his only season in charge. He was later manager of Brentford between 1984 and 1987, and then as a coach at Millwall, helping the club gain promotion to the old Division One. He has also eked out a successful career as an after dinner speaker, and as a pundit for first BBC Radio, and more recently Sky Sports.

References

*cite book
author=Harris, Jeff & Hogg, Tony (ed.)
title=Arsenal Who's Who
publisher=Independent UK Sports
year=1995
id=ISBN 1-899429-03-4