'McAvennie would be worth £100m easily today'

Former Celtic, West Ham and Scotland forward Frank McAvennie is first Scottish football legend to featured in the new series of BBC Scotland's Icons of Football.

Those who know McAvennie best, talk about the enigmatic character, as well known off the pitch as he was on it.

'Larger than life character with hidden depths'

Bianca Westwood, TV presenter and journalist

I’d only just turned 11 when he signed for West Ham and there wasn’t much enthusiasm - he was an unknown in East London, this guy from St Mirren.

Because of a dispute between clubs and TV companies, you didn’t really get to see this blonde bombshell scoring all these goals.

I was lucky that we had season tickets, so we knew why Frank had set East London alight. We had confidence that he was going to score.

He seems like a larger-than-life character but when you get to know him you realise there’s a sensitivity there that not many people know exists.

He had arrogance on the football field but once you have a conversation with him you realise there’s a lot more depth to Frank than that.

Frank’s an icon because he changed our lives as West Ham fans. This skinny 26-year-old with a blonde mullet completely turned our world upside down.

He scored goals in a way that you’ll never forget.

There aren’t that many born goal scorers around. If Frank McAvennie was around today and he was scoring 25 to 30 goals a season, he’d be worth £100m easily.

'Figure of mystery during TV blackout'

Graham Hunter, journalist

There were so many things that, where a millimetre chance in either direction, and he doesn’t make it. It’s all fluke, fluke, fluke.

When Paul Goddard got injured, Frank made this glorious partnership with Tony Cottee.

It became a mythical season as things couldn’t be seen, couldn’t be watched, it was folklore, an oral history happening live, not retrospectively.

Frank was a figure of mystery in that season when the TV coverage was blacked out.

He always said that team-mates told him when he called for a pass, they thought he was calling them out for a fight. They were intimidated by him.

Could Frank McAvennie exist in 2024 football? You’d pay a king’s ransom for one of his feet, never mind the whole item.

'When Frank arrived, I had to change my game'

Tony Cottee, team-mate at West Ham

I say this in a nice way, but Frank stitched me up.

He arrived from Scotland with everything to prove and he had to do that in the way that only Frank knew how. That was to lead the team from the front.

He was doing all this hard work and I was just standing down the middle of the pitch, absolutely not interested in closing defenders down.

So, when Frank arrived, I had to change my game, I’m thinking, ‘thanks Frank, now I’ve got to bring something else to the table’.

We had a big team meeting and that was basically pointing the finger at me to say 'you’re not working hard enough, look at what Frank’s doing'.

'Thrived on the fact he was Jack the Lad'

Mick McCarthy, team-mate at Celtic

He stood out with his blonde locks and thrived on the fact he was Jack the Lad.

Some people who didn’t know him as well as we did probably thought he wasn’t as good as he was or didn’t work as hard as he did.

He’d say he was going home [to London] and that he’d catch the half past six flight up to Glasgow in time for training. And of course, he wouldn’t.

There would be many a time we’d be sat in the dressing room and big Billy [McNeill] would walk in and go ‘Is he [Frank] there?’. I remember we used to put pictures of him up where he sat... that didn’t go down well.

'Flamboyant character, different from all the others'

Alan Rough, team-mate at Celtic

There aren’t many players that go to the same three clubs twice, like Frank did, so he must have been doing something right wherever he went to.

The lifestyle that he lived was pretty different to most of us. We weren’t all jumping down to London after a game and going out with George Best.

He was gallus. Just look at the colour of his hair... that’s not his natural colour and he’ll tell you himself the reason he made his hair that colour was to be more noticeable. It worked.

He’s a fan’s player for me. He lights up the whole ground with his enthusiasm. He gave you that excitement every time the ball went near him.