Career
He later became a football manager. McCreadie started his footballing career with amateur Scottish side Drumchapel before moving to Clydebank Juniors and then East Stirlingshire. After turning down a move to Fulham, he was signed for Chelsea in 1962 by then-manager Tommy Docherty for £5000 to help the club"s push for promotion from the Second Division.
As part of the deal Chelsea also agreed to play two friendly matches against East Stirlingshire.
A match was played at Firs Park in 1963, but a return fixture was not scheduled. Over 50 years later, East Stirlingshire requested that Chelsea complete the agreement.
Chelsea were promoted to the First Division later in 1962 and McCreadie became a fixture in the Chelsea defence for the next decade. A talented and pacy attacking full-back with impressive timing, McCreadie featured strongly in the flamboyant Chelsea sides of the 1960s and 1970s alongside the likes of Ron Harris, Bobby Tambling, Peter Osgood and Charlie Cooke.
He was also a Scotland international, winning 23 caps between 1965 and 1969 after making his debut against England.
Upon his retirement from playing in 1973, McCreadie joined the coaching staff at Chelsea having made 410 appearances for the club In April 1975 he was appointed manager but by this stage the team was in decline with the club heavily in debt and he couldn"t prevent relegation to the Second Division. Nevertheless, McCreadie re-built the side - taking the captaincy from Harris and giving it to 18-year-old Ray Wilkins in the process - and with no money to spend put together a team of youth players and veterans from the club"s heyday.
Chelsea were promoted back to the First Division in 1977.
lieutenant was then that he lost his job in somewhat bizarre circumstances. Mears then relented and offered him the car but with his sense of Scottish pride he did not come back to the club as he had already made his mind up.
McCreadie left for the North American Soccer League in the late 1970s and was appointed manager of the Memphis Rogues, with whom he played one game in 1979, and later the indoor Cleveland Force before finally retiring from football in 1985. He continues to live in the United States.