Stephen Charles Frail (born 10 August 1969) is a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

and former player, who was most recently assistant manager of

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

club

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

. He played for

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

, Heart of Midlothian,

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an old ...

and

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the Scottish Championship. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Green ...

. Returning to Hearts as a coach, he was in charge of the first team between 2007 and 2008, partially alongside Anatoliy Korobochka.

Playing career

Frail began his career with Archie Knox's

in 1985, gradually developing into a first-team player by the end of the decade. He helped the

Dens Park Dens Park, officially known as Kilmac Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland, which is the home of club Dundee F.C. and has a capacity of . Tannadice Park, the home of rivals Dundee United, is just 200 yards ...

side to victory in the inaugural

Scottish Challenge Cup The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,1990–91, however his progress was hindered by a serious

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

ligament A ligament is the fibrous connective tissue that connects bones to other bones. It is also known as ''articular ligament'', ''articular larua'', ''fibrous ligament'', or ''true ligament''. Other ligaments in the body include the: * Peritoneal li ...

injury, causing him to miss almost an entire season., Frail joined Hearts in a £130,000 deal in March 1994 and his form during the 1994–95 season as a right wingback led to media speculation of a call-up to the Scottish national side. Injury continued to hinder him though and in an away match at

on 21 March 1995 he suffered similar knee ligament damage to that he sustained while with Dundee. He missed the entire 1995–96 season and upon his return to fitness found his previous role in the team taken by

Gary Locke Gary Faye Locke (born January 21, 1950) is an American politician and diplomat serving as the interim president of Bellevue College, the largest of the institutions that make up the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system. Locke serv ...

. Unable to maintain a permanent position in the team he filled-in as a defensive midfielder when required as well as deputising for Locke but left

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

for

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

when

paid £90,000 for his services in January 1998. Following a familiar pattern, Frail's time with Tranmere was decimated by injuries and he made less than 30 total appearances during his two seasons with the club. He is best remembered for his involvement in a controversial incident in an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

tie with

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, when a bureaucratic mix-up resulted in him being substituted on for Clint Hill who, unbeknown to Frail, had just been sent-off for a second bookable offence. After several minutes of commotion another player left the field to ensure Tranmere didn't avoid their punishment. Frail returned to Scotland with

in 2000, signed for a second time by his former Hearts manager

Sandy Clark Alexander "Sandy" Clark (born 28 October 1956) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player who is currently manager of Lowland League side East Stirlingshire. Career Clark played for several clubs in his playing career inclu ...

. After a single season in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

he moved to

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...

side

Morton Morton may refer to: People * Morton (surname) * Morton (given name) Fictional * Morton Koopa, Jr., a character and boss in ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' * A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise * A character in the 2008 film '' Horton H ...

Coaching career

While at Morton, Frail began to become involved in coaching, firstly under

Peter Cormack Peter Barr Cormack (born 17 July 1946) is a Scottish former international football player and manager. His greatest success was with Liverpool in the early 1970s, for whom he played 178 times, winning two league championships, one FA Cup and t ...

then former teammate at Hearts Dave McPherson. He retired from his playing role at the end of the 2001–02 season and became a full-time assistant to Morton's third manager within the year, John McCormack. McCormack was sacked in 2004, and Frail and the rest of the coaching staff left with him. Later that year, after attending Hearts

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

tie with

Sporting Braga Sporting Clube de Braga () (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese ...

, he was invited to join their coaching staff by then manager

Craig Levein Craig William Levein (born 22 October 1964) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He is currently a full-time advisor to the board of directors at Highland Football League club Brechin City. During his playing career ...

. Initially coach of the under-19 side, he was promoted to become assistant coach when

John McGlynn John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

left to manage

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leag ...

in 2006. Frail, along with sporting director

Anatoly Korobochka Anatoliy Vasylyovych Korobochka (russian: Анатолий Васильевич Коробочка) (born 5 January 1955 in Simferopol, USSR, now Ukraine) is a former midfielder, and was formerly the Director of Football at Heart of Midlothian ...

, took temporary charge of Hearts' first team in March 2007 after the departure of

Valdas Ivanauskas Valdas Ivanauskas (born 31 July 1966) is a Lithuanian football coach and a former striker. He is best known in Europe for his time at Austria Vienna as well as Hamburger SV where he acted between 1993 and 97. Beyond that he stood on the sidel ...

. It was confirmed in June 2007 that Frail and Korobochka would take charge of the Jambos for the 2007–08 season with Bulgarian

Angel Chervenkov Angel Chervenkov ( bg, Ангел Димитров Червенков, born 10 June 1964) is a Bulgarian former footballer and football manager. Career As a player As a footballer, Chervenkov played as a defender for Tundzha Yambol (1980–19 ...

coming in as assistant, though it was left ambiguous which one of the pair had responsibility for team selection. After poor form, which saw Hearts drop to tenth in the

SPL SPL may refer to: Association football * Saudi Professional League * Scottish Premier League * SportPesa Premier League, Kenya * Singapore Premier League * RoboCup Standard Platform League, matches between autonomous robots Computing Program ...

, Frail was promoted to

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular Manager (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...

in January 2008 as the club planned to appoint a new permanent manager. It was announced Frail will be replaced as manager at the end of the 2007/08 season. In April 2009, Frail was appointed a coach at

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

, working with their reserve and youth teams. He left this position on 1 September 2015. After leaving Celtic, Frail worked with the Scotland U16 team and scouted for

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

before the Irish Football Association appointed him to be full-time manager of the Northern Ireland Under 19 and Under 17 teams in August 2016. Frail returned to Scotland in July 2020, becoming assistant manager at

. In June 2021, Frail left Dundee United.

References

External links

*
Appearances
at londonhearts.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Frail, Stephen 1969 births Living people Scottish footballers Footballers from Glasgow Dundee F.C. players Dundee United F.C. non-playing staff Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Heart of Midlothian F.C. non-playing staff Heart of Midlothian F.C. managers Tranmere Rovers F.C. players St Johnstone F.C. players Greenock Morton F.C. players Greenock Morton F.C. non-playing staff Scottish Premier League managers Celtic F.C. non-playing staff Bolton Wanderers F.C. non-playing staff Association football midfielders Scottish football managers Association football fullbacks