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 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. He kept his first-team place and picked up two-man of the match awards but after a mistimed tackle on
Arsenal's
Jackie Henderson he was initially diagnosed with extensive cartilage damage in his right knee and was scheduled in for a risky surgical procedure, but after demanding a second opinion he was diagnosed with a sprain and was sidelined for sixteen weeks. He returned to action in February after replacing new signing
Ian White in the starting eleven, and scored his first goal for the
Foxes in a 3–1 victory over
Manchester United. He was still struggling with his knee so missed the start of the
1960–61 season, but was returned to the starting line-up in September as City began to put a good set of results together, beating Manchester United 6–0, Arsenal home and away, and putting five goals past both
West Ham United and
Newcastle United. They went on to reach the
1961 FA Cup final against
Tottenham Hotspur at
Wembley Stadium; the day before the final McLintock painted a cellar as part of his painting and decorating job. An injury sustained by
Len Chalmers early in the game meant that McLintock was shifted from right-half to fill in at right-back, and ten-men Leicester fell to a 2–0 defeat. In the summer he qualified as a painter and decorator, and immediately quit his job to focus on full-time football.
Liverpool manager
Bill Shankly made a transfer bid for him, but was rebuffed by the Leicester board, as was
Leeds United manager
Don Revie. The
1961–62 campaign represented a step back for Leicester as they dropped eight places down to 14th place. Injury meant McLintock featured in only one
European Cup Winners' Cup game, a 1–1 home draw with eventual winners
Atlético Madrid, and prevented him from playing in the reverse fixture at the
Estadio Metropolitano de Madrid, which Madrid won. In the summer, McLintock and goalkeeper
Gordon Banks refused to sign new contracts at the club as they demanded a £10 a week raise to £30 a week – the pair were vilified in the local press to such an extent that McLintock went into the offices of the
Leicester Mercury to forcibly put his case across to the sports editor – and eventually after three months they settled for £28 a week. During the
1962–63 season he forged an effective half-back partnership with
Colin Appleton and
Ian King and was part of the revered "Ice Kings" team which won a series of games over the course of the
brutal winter and came within nine points of winning
the Football League. City were top of the
First Division with five games to go but picked up only one point from these final five games. They also had an excellent run in the
FA Cup to reach the
1963 FA Cup final, and were installed as favourites ahead of Manchester United. However McLintock and his teammates were poor on the day, and United won the match 3–1. Having been on course for the
Double in April, Leicester ended May with a fourth-place finish and as runners-up in the cup. Early in the
1964–65 season, McLintock was still unhappy with his contract at Leicester City and with what he perceived to be the club's lack of ambition. Despite the board relenting and offering him £80 a week to sign a new contract, he had already made up his mind to leave the club in favour of the chance to win "cups and caps" elsewhere and put in a formal transfer request.
Arsenal 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 in midfield. 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. McLintock later said that Arsenal were never the same force after Don Howe left to manage
West Bromwich Albion in the summer of 1971, and that complacency crept into the squad. He felt that new coach
Steve Burtenshaw was not tough enough on the squad and failed to keep the players focused. The pressing game was abandoned to suit new record signing
Alan Ball, who was talented but did not fit the style of play that had brought the team success. McLintock held a clear the air meeting with the players in January, and asked the coaching staff not to attend, and though the team accepted that their standards had fallen the meeting still did not have the desired effect of improving performances. They exited the
European Cup at the hands of Ajax, McLintock giving away a disputed penalty at the
Olympic Stadium. They ended the
1971–72 league campaign in fifth place, six points behind champions
Derby County. Arsenal did reach the
FA Cup final, but were beaten 1–0 by Leeds United. He was dropped midway through the
1972–73 campaign, and reacted badly to the news by exploding with anger towards Mee. He returned to the first team in February following an injury to
Jeff Blockley, but was told by Mee his return was only temporary. He made a formal transfer request in March 1973, and in doing so gave up the chance to be granted a testimonial game for ten years' service to the club.
Queens Park Rangers McLintock was signed by
Queens Park Rangers in June 1973 for a fee of £25,000; he chose to join QPR ahead of West Bromwich Albion as he wanted to remain in the First Division. He spent the
1973–74 season in a centre-back partnership with
Terry Mancini, in front of goalkeeper
Phil Parkes and flanked by full-backs
Dave Clement and
Ian Gillard, and helped Rangers to an eighth-place finish in manager
Gordon Jago's last season in charge.
Dave Sexton took charge from the
1974–75 campaign, and signed
David Webb to replace Mancini who had moved on to Arsenal. McLintock enjoyed his time at
Loftus Road and said that during the
1975–76 season, Rangers "were by miles the best football team in the country". By March 1976, Rangers were in a two-way battle for the league title with Liverpool, and with three games to go they could win the league with three victories. However, they were beaten by
Norwich City and Liverpool won their remaining fixtures to become champions. He made 53 appearances in the
1976–77 campaign, before announcing his retirement in May 1977. ==International career==