William David Young (born 25 November 1951) is a Scottish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

. Playing as a defender, he featured for

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

and

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

throughout his career.

Club career

A large, physically intimidating

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

from

Heriot Heriot, from Old English ''heregeat'' ("war-gear"), was originally a death-duty in late Anglo-Saxon England, which required that at death, a nobleman provided to his king a given set of military equipment, often including horses, swords, shields ...

near

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Young attended Ross High School in

Tranent Tranent is a town in East Lothian (formerly Haddingtonshire), in the south-east of Scotland. Tranent lies 6 miles from the boundary of Edinburgh, and 9.1 miles from the city centre. It lies south of the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road that r ...

. Nicknamed "Big Willie", he first played professionally for

, all in all making 187 appearances for the ''Dons'' between 1970 and 1975.1975 , All Change in Scottish Football
Aberdeen FC, 19 March 2020 He was signed by

in September 1975, and while playing under

Terry Neill William John Terence Neill (8 May 1942 – 28 July 2022) was a Northern Irish football player and manager. A centre-back, he captained and later managed Arsenal, guiding the club to a European final in 1980 and three consecutive FA Cup final ...

made 64 appearances for Spurs in two seasons. In March 1977, Young once again signed for manager Neill so as to link up at

Highbury Highbury is an area of North London, England, in the London Borough of Islington. Highbury Manor Highbury was once owned by Ranulf, brother of Ilger, and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor hou ...

with Spurs' arch-rivals

. Young immediately became a regular in the Arsenal first team, and played in all of the ''Gunners trio of

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

finals; after losing to Ipswich Town in 1978, Young was on the winning side the following year, with a 3–2 defeat of

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

. Young was a runner up in the 1980 FA Cup Final, where he made an infamous tackle on West Ham United's Paul Allen and also a runner up in the

1980 European Cup Winners' Cup Final The 1980 European Cup Winners' Cup Final was a Association football, football match contested on 14 May 1980 between Valencia CF, Valencia of Spain and Arsenal F.C., Arsenal of England. The final was held at King Baudouin Stadium, Heysel Stadium i ...

. Young continued to be Arsenal's first choice centre back until the 1981–82 season, when he lost his place to Chris Whyte. Having played 237 times and scoring 19 goals for Arsenal, the 30-year-old Young then joined

in December 1981 for £50,000, and played 59 times over two seasons there. In 1983, he joined

, but with injuries dogging him, he failed to secure a regular place in the side. He then had short spells at

Brighton and Hove Brighton and Hove ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority area, ceremonially in East Sussex, England. There are multiple villages alongside the seaside resorts of Brighton and Hove in the district. It is administe ...

, followed by

before his retirement from the game in November 1984.

International career

He was capped 5 times, scoring one goal for Scotland's U23s. Young never played a full international for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

having been banned for life after an incident in a

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

nightclub in 1975.

Personal life

As a player at Aberdeen, Young worked on oil rigs during the summer to top up his earnings. He is married to Lynda; they have three children. After retiring from football he spent 19 years running a

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

called Bramcote Manor near

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

, and then bought

kennel A kennel is a structure or shelter for dogs. Used in the plural, ''the kennels'', the term means any building, collection of buildings or a property in which dogs are housed, maintained, and (though not in all cases) bred. A kennel can be made o ...

s in

Bottesford, Leicestershire Bottesford is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Melton in the ceremonial county of Leicestershire, England. It lies close to the borders of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. Location Bottesford is about east of Nottingham and nort ...

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Honours

;Arsenal *

: winner 1978–79 **Runner-up 1977–78, 1979–80 *

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

: Runner up 1979–80

References

External links

Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Willie 1951 births Living people Footballers from Edinburgh Men's association football central defenders Scottish men's footballers Footballers from the Scottish Borders Arsenal F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Darlington F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Scotland men's under-23 international footballers People educated at Ross High School, Tranent