page_title: Frank McLintock
section_title: Arsenal
hierarchical_section_title: Frank McLintock / Playing career / Arsenal
caption_attribution_description: English: Frank McLintock.
context_page_description: Francis McLintock MBE is a former Scotland international footballer and football manager. He also worked as a sports agent and football pundit in his later life.
  He began his career in Scottish Junior football with Shawfield, before earning a professional contract with English First Division club Leicester City in December 1956. He played in two FA Cup final defeats before he was sold to Arsenal for £80,000 in October 1964. He had a poor start to his career at Arsenal, though he did feature in two League Cup final defeats, but he found success at the club after being switched from right-half to centre-half in 1969. Appointed as captain he led the club to their first European trophy, the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970. The following season, 1970–71, he captained Arsenal to the Double, as they won the league and the FA Cup. He was sold to Queens Park Rangers in June 1973 for a fee of £25,000, and helped the club to finish as First Division runners-up in 1975–76 before he announced his retirement in May 1977. He scored a total of 66 goals in 766 league and cup games in a 20-year professional career, and won nine caps for Scotland in an eight-year international career.
context_section_description: In October 1964, McLintock was signed by Arsenal for a club record £80,000. He endured a poor début at Highbury, mishitting a back-pass to allow Nottingham Forest's John Barnwell – who ironically had been sold by Arsenal to finance McLintock's transfer – to score an easy goal. He found that manager Billy Wright had no identifiable system of play and McLintock soon regretted joining the club as his first four games all ended in defeat. He was in poor form in the 1964–65, 1965–66 and 1966–67 seasons but remained a regular first team player as the Gunners struggled in mid-table. He insisted that the club change strip from red and white to all red so as to rid the team of the stigma of failing to live up to the highly successful red and white Arsenal teams of previous years; the experiment lasted for just the 1966–67 season before Arsenal reverted to red and white. Dissatisfied with the club's management, he put in a transfer request, which was denied by the board.
  The new management duo of Bertie Mee and Dave Sexton began to slowly turn the team around, and Arsenal improved to ninth place by the 1967–68 campaign. After Sexton's departure Don Howe was promoted to first team coach and continued to improve the team's training methods. They reached the League Cup final at Wembley Stadium in 1968, but were beaten 1–0 by Leeds United, with Arsenal having an equalising goal ruled out after McLintock was judged to have fouled goalkeeper Gary Sprake. In the summer he was named as Arsenal's Player of the Year and his initial four-year contract came to an end.
  He was appointed as team captain for the 1968–69 season, taking over from Terry Neill, and signed a new four-year contract. For the second successive season Arsenal reached the League Cup final, and as opponents Swindon Town were from the Third Division McLintock expected that he would finally secure a trophy on his fourth visit to Wembley. However Swindon won 3–1 after extra-time and McLintock blamed an influenza outbreak that affected him and five other teammates on the day and also blamed the Horse of the Year Show for ruining the pitch. The disappointment did not detract from their league form however, and they secured a place in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup with a fourth-place finish.
  He started the 1969–70 season at centre-half after initially filling in at the position for an injured Peter Simpson towards the end of the previous campaign; this in turn allowed George Graham to move back and play at centre-half. McLintock and Simpson formed a highly effective centre-back partnership, and soon mastered the offside trap. In Europe he missed the first two rounds due to injury, before returning to the starting eleven for victories over Rouen (France), FCM Bacău (Romania) and Ajax (Netherlands) to reach the final against Belgian club Anderlecht. Arsenal lost 3–1 in the first leg at Constant Vanden Stock Stadium as Anderlecht outplayed them. They turned the tie around at Highbury though and won the game 3–0 and the tie 4–3 to secure the club's first major trophy in 17 years.
  He captained Arsenal to the Double in the 1970–71 season, in what was only the fourth time the feat had been accomplished in the history of the Football League. Aside from a 5–0 defeat to Stoke City, Arsenal built their success on a solid defence, and claimed ten 1–0 victories during the campaign. They secured the title with a 1–0 victory over North London derby rivals Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane, Ray Kennedy scoring the winning goal. In the FA Cup final they beat Liverpool 2–1 after extra-time, with Charlie George scoring the winning goal. To complete the campaign McLintock was named as FWA Footballer of the Year.
  The words used to describe us during the 1970–71 season – dull, sterile, unimaginative – reflect the generally dismissive tone levelled at us. Even the compliments we got – well organised, highly efficient, powerful – had the whiff of back-handed tributes.
  — Arsenal were compared unfavourably with Spurs' Double-winning side of 1960–61.
  McLintock later said that Arsenal were never the same fo
caption: Frank McLintock, April 1970
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