Frank McAvennie: Former Celtic & Scotland player picks his team-mates XI – BBC Sport

Frank McAvennie may be most famous to many Scottish football fans as a character played by Jonathan Watson on Only and Excuse, but once upon a time he was a top professional footballer.

The prolific striker played north and south of the border and went to the 1986 World Cup with Scotland.

Here, the former Celtic, St Mirren and West Ham United forward makes his best team-mates selection, featuring representatives of those clubs and his country, and you can also listen to the 64-year-old explain his choices on BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound from 16:00 BST on Saturday.

I played with him for many years at St Mirren. He went on to Dundee United then went to Rangers. Great keeper, he really was. A lot of people forget that. He was a fabulous goalkeeper.

The back four really picks itself. Ray Stewart was by far the best right-back. He was magnificent. Boy, could he take a penalty. He stopped me from taking penalties – I would’ve scored a lot more goals otherwise. What a player. Won so many trophies with West Ham, he was different class.

I found it difficult the two centre pairings because I played with some wonderful partnerships, some great players. I’ve got to get Roy Aitken into the team so he plays at centre-back, which he did on numerous occasions and I need to put him with Alvin Martin. Alvin was superb for me. Roy could take the game by the scruff of the neck.

Julian Dicks was hard and he played on that. He was my room-mate – great sense of humour. He intimidated a lot of people before they went out on the pitch – it was like Mike Tyson intimidating fighters. He could hit the ball 50 yards right over the top, right to your feet. His left foot was like a wand.

I moved Alan Devonshire to the right to get Davie Cooper in. Alan Devonshire was probably one of the best players I played with, what a player. Everybody that I played with, everybody I know at West Ham, they pick him as the best player they played with.

Graeme Souness helped me out so much with Scotland. I shared a room with him at the World Cup. Wonderful footballer. Paul McStay would have to be in any team. Another one that I thought was world class.

What a player Davie Cooper was. To train with him and to get the chance to play on the same pitch as him was wonderful. An absolute genius with that left foot. He was different class. He’s got to be in.

Kenny’s there. Kenny Dalglish was the king, he was the top man. In 1977 when he left Celtic to go to Liverpool, I thought my world had ended. I was a big Celtic supporter, I was heartbroken.

When I came back to Celtic, Charlie Nicolas was there. There was a couple of games we played together, it was just magnificent. He’s got such ability. I thought he was one of the best Celtic players ever. Charlie scored 50 goals against the best defenders Scotland’s ever had.

I would be happy to go and watch that team. That team would win anything.

McAvennie enjoyed a prolific partnership with Tony Cottee at West and, on one occasion, their competitiveness got the better of them, as Macca describes…

“The team was just on fire. I came up with this great bet – who could score the best goal? Tony took it, £100 bet. Tony didn’t go out the box. This game playing Aston Villa, he came out the box, 18, 19 yards, bang top corner. I’m delighted because I’m a team player. But obviously I’m a thinking, ‘how am I going to beat that?’ Mark Ward put me through – Nigel Spink’s a big lad. I scooped it and I put it over him. I’m thinking, ‘he’s going to catch it’ but luckily the ball crossed the line, bet was won – brilliant.

“After the game, the manager knew something was up after that chip, made a few enquiries, found out about the bet and fined the two of us £1,000. Never done it again. And I still never got the £100 off Tony Cottee.”