“I wouldn’t say that Arsenal fans were thrilled to see me join their club,” laughed Willie Young during one of our interviews at the turn of the century. “It didn’t help that I’d previously played for Tottenham, but I think that eventually I won over the supporters.”
A towering 6’3” central defender, the red-haired Young began his first-team career at Aberdeen before heading south in 1975 and spending two years playing under Terry Neill at Tottenham. During a feisty north London derby in November 1976, he was dismissed after a hefty challenge on our striker Frank Stapleton.
When former captain Neill joined us as manager in the summer of 1976, he signed Young for £80,000 the following year.