Frankie McAvoy

Frankie McAvoy (born 9 July 1967) is a Scottish professional football coach who is currently the assistant coach at Scottish Premiership club Heart of Midlothian.

McAvoy was previously the head coach at club Preston North End.

Playing career
McAvoy did not play football at a professional level, instead playing junior football locally for Bellshill Athletic, Thorniewood United, Wishaw, Bellshill YM and Blantyre Victoria.

Coaching career
In 2003, McAvoy joined Dunfermline Athletic as an academy coach. In 2005, McAvoy joined Hamilton Academical in the same role, later becoming academy director. In 2013, following Alex Neil's appointment as manager, McAvoy became first team coach at Hamilton. In 2015, both McAvoy and Neil moved to Norwich City, with McAvoy once again acting as first team coach. In July 2017, the pair moved to EFL Championship club Preston North End.

Following the dismissal of Neil on 21 March 2021, McAvoy was named as interim head coach of Preston until the end of the 2020–21 season. On 10 May 2021, McAvoy appointed head coach permanently, after winning five of his eight matches in interim charges.

On 6 December 2021, McAvoy was dismissed by Preston despite a respectable record, winning fourteen league games out of his 33 in charge 2021–22 season.

On 3 February 2022, McAvoy joined Scottish Premiership side Heart of Midlothian as Academy Director, being given "a wide-ranging remit to oversee the youth system". McAvoy became Hearts head coach in June 2023, working with Steven Naismith. McAvoy was given that job title as Naismith did not have a coaching licence needed to be the lead coach for matches in European competitions. In September 2023, a week after Hearts had been eliminated from the Europa Conference League, Naismith was made head coach and McAvoy his assistant.