FRANK McLintock, one of Arsenal's most stalwart players who captained the London club to cup glory but only pulled on a Scotland jersey nine times, questioned the mentality of the modern footballer yesterday after Kris Boyd decided to turn his back on the national team under manager George Burley.
The fit of pique from the Rangers striker, after he was left out of Saturday's scoreless draw against Norway in a World Cup qualifier at Hampden, perplexed the former centre-half who had far more reason to take the huff during the Sixties when he was
awarded just one cap for Scotland in the course of six seasons between 1964 and 1970.
While McLintock was always proud to be involved with the national team, if and when he was asked, Boyd thoughtlessly threw the toys out of the pram at the weekend even though he'd already won 15 Scotland caps, in spite of not being a regular first-choice starter at Ibrox.
"It was surprising, but things shouldn't surprise you any more," said the 68-year-old, who was named footballer of the year in England in 1971 and awarded the MBE. "I listened to what George Burley said (about Boyd] and this is typical of the modern day footballer.
"They have so much money behind them, so many people lapping them up and being kind to them. If something goes wrong, they just take umbrage a and retire from international football.
"The whole mentality of modern day footballers is different from the days when we played."
Given that Boyd is only 25, it makes his spurning of international football all the more baffling. "I'm sure that Kris Boyd feels as if George Burley doesn't rate him," McLintock told the BBC's Today programme. "I'm only trying to read between the lines, but with the score at 0-0 (against Norway], he's a born goalscorer and thinks to himself 'Why hasn't he put me in the team?'
"People like Dave Mackay, Billy Bremner, Denis Law and all the rest of the wonderful players Scotland had would usually be in the team all the time, rather than being used as substitutes, so they didn't quite come into the same category as Boyd. But there were others, like myself, who did. In those days, the squad used to be called the Scottish pool. And I was in more pools than Johnny Weissmuller."
The allusion to the American Olympic swimmer, who became a Hollywood actor and played Tarzan, is typical of a generation of footballers who didn't take themselves too seriously. After all, McLintock was hardly unique when it came to being overlooked by his country.
For instance, Willie Bauld, Hearts' most celebrated centre-forward, only won three caps for Scotland in the spring of 1950 and was subsequently ignored – a snub which even the SFA's own website today brands as 'astonishing'. Compared to so many of the under-used internationalists of the past, Boyd has precious little cause for complaint. "The standard of player then was so high," McLintock remembered.
"I played and was capped in midfield, first of all, as well as at centre-half later. You were up against John Greig, Jim Baxter, Dave MacKay, Paddy Crerand, Pat Stanton and many, many others for the midfield positions. I was just happy to be involved, even if it was on the bench."
A wing-half with Leicester who was converted to a centre-half by Bertie Mee during his time at Arsenal, McLintock never complained when success at club level wasn't automatically mirrored in his international career. "The year after England won the World Cup, Scotland went to Wembley and won 3-2. They played brilliantly. I was desperate to get on the pitch, but I didn't get on. You just had to get on with it. The mentality of the players was different then. You were so keen to get any recognition playing for your country that I don't remember any player of my era ever doing that (rejecting Scotland]."
Stanton, the stylish Hibernian midfielder who was capped 16 times by Scotland, made his first appearance in 1966, but didn't feature again for three years. "But when you looked at the players who were around at that time, it would have been quite something to say you should have been in the Scotland side rather than one of them," he recalled.
Stanton, 64, agrees with McLintock that a change of attitude has taken place towards representing your country over the generations. "It would never have occurred to any of us, after being left out of the team, to state that we didn't want to play for Scotland again," he said. "It always seemed to me to be such an honour and a privilege to be part of any Scotland squad.
"Apart from anything else, I would have been concerned about what my father would have to say on the subject. If I'd said I didn't want to pull on a Scotland jersey, I'd have needed to keep out of his way for a couple of years at least…"
The full article contains 856 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
