Frank McLintock

McLintock started his semi-professional career at the age of 15 in the Scottish Juniors with his local club, Shawfield. He worked during the week as an apprentice painter and decorator. He soon began attracting interest from Scottish and English clubs, but decided to join an English club as he did not want to join a Scottish club only to be sent back on loan in the Junior leagues to gain experience.

Leicester City

He had a successful trial with Leicester City in December 1956, and was offered a part-time contract on his 17th birthday, with Shawfield receiving a £400 fee. At his mother's insistence, he continued his painting and decorating apprenticeship in Leicester, and would continue in the trade alongside playing football for the next five years. He found it easy to settle at the club as manager Dave Halliday and a total of 27 players and trainers at Filbert Street were Scottish. He was initially quite short but experienced a growth spurt, and gained extra leg muscles as he cycled to and from work and training. In fact McLintock's initial 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) physique meant Halliday was keen to terminate his contract, but he was persuaded not to by coach Matt Gillies, who had witnessed the extra training McLintock put in every day. In his spare time he also trained with his left foot to become a two-footed player. Gillies replaced Halliday as manager, and handed McLintock his debut eight games into the 1959–60 season, a 3–3 draw with Blackpool at Bloomfield Road.…

McLintock made his debut for Scotland in a 4–3 defeat to Norway on 4 June 1963, replacing Dave Mackay on 78 minutes. In his third appearance for Scotland, against Spain on 13 June, he scored one of the goals in a 6–2 win. However, he rarely featured after this game as Mackay, Paddy Crerand, John Greig, Bobby Murdoch, Pat Stanton and Billy Bremner were all preferred ahead of him at right-half.

"The majority of the press had disappeared so far up the Old Firm's arses that they could never be objective about English-based players and the Scottish Football Association (SFA) often treated us like the shit on their shoes."

Leicester City

McLintock joined his first club Leicester City as manager in June 1977, succeeding Jimmy Bloomfield who took the Foxes to an 11th-place finish in 1976–77. He sold striker Frank Worthington to Bolton Wanderers for £20,000 as the player needed a signing on fee and higher wages to avoid bankruptcy. He signed Alan Waddle in his place, who scored only one league goal for the club. He signed Eddie Kelly, David Webb, George Armstrong, Geoff Salmons and Lammie Robertson, all of whom were coming to the end of their careers. He spent £250,000 on Roger Davies, who also flopped at Filbert Street. City went through a spell where they had one win in 26 matches. He resigned in April 1978, with relegation into the Second Division all but confirmed. He worked as a pundit for the BBC, before making his return to coaching when Terry Venables appointed him as a youth team coach at Queens Park Rangers in December 1982.

Brentford

He was appointed as manager of Brentford in February 1984, with the Bees second-from-bottom in the Third Division. His more successful signings included defender Terry Evans, midfielder Andy Sinton and forward Robbie Cooke. He took Brentford to the final of the Football League Trophy in 1985, where they were beaten 3–1 by Wigan Athletic. He resigned in January 1987, and was replaced by Steve Perryman. He worked as assistant manager to John Docherty at Millwall from July 1987 to February 1990, helping the Lions to win promotion as…

McLintock was born in Sandyfaulds Street, Glasgow, and brought up in the Oatlands area of the Gorbals. He was the son of Catherine, a cleaner, and Archie McLintock, a casual labourer, and grew up in poverty with elder sister Jean. He was brought up Catholic and attended the local Catholic school, St Bonaventure's. He hated the sectarianism in Glasgow.