Whatever happened to Willie Young

Willie Young played 170 games for Arsenal and scored 11 goals, before moving on to Nottingham Forest for whom he played 59 times.   After that the injuries began to catch up with him, and his spells with Norwich City, Brighton and Hove and Darlington resulted only in a handful of games in each case.

After retiring from football he spent 19 years running the Bramcote Manor public house near Nottingham, and then bought kennels in Bottesford, Leicestershire.  Willie is now 68 and we hope he’s having a thoroughly enjoyable retirement.

Here are the anniversaries…

5 March 1892: After many clubs dropped out of the attempt to form a Southern League the remainder (but without Arsenal) moved towards forming The Southern Alliance, a league that lasted just one season.  Arsenal meanwhile opened discussions with the Football League about expanding the League into London.

5 March 1897: The Kentish Mercury reported that 54 people had applied for the job of Arsenal manager, showing that the fame of the first League club in the south had clearly grown.

5 March 1910: Last senior game for Charles Satterthwaite – the man who scored Arsenal’s first ever 1st division goal.  Millwall Athletic 3 Woolwich Arsenal 3. He did not join another club and retired from football aged 32.

5 March 1910: Archie Devine won his one and only cap.  In his career he had 14 transfers and played for 11 different clubs.

5 March 1920: Sir Henry Norris was very active in Parliament working to stop bookmakers using football as a way of offering ludicrous odds to the detriment of punters.  On this day he moved the second reading of the Ready Money Football Betting Bill which he had earlier introduced. It received wide support but very noticeably did not getting the backing of Sir Samuel Hill-Wood MP, who later would be a prime mover in getting Sir Henry ejected from Arsenal.

5 March 1927: Arsenal 2 Wolverhampton 1.  FA Cup 6th round on the way to Arsenal’s first ever final.  Blyth and Butler scored in front of 52,821 – Highbury’s largest crowd of the season. Two days later Arsenal lost 0-7 to WHU.

5 March 1932: Arsenal were at home to Leicester.  With Lambert and Parkin both injured Chapman acted and thus Ernie Coleman was signed from Grimsby.  The day after his signing he played his first Arsenal game.

5 March 1938:  A 4-0 home win over Stoke took Arsenal top – as Arsenal moved on towards winning the league.  Carr, Griffiths (2) and Drake got the goals. It was the last of a seven match unbeaten run.

5 March 1938: Arsenal announced the signing of 20 year old Gordon Bremmer from Cartha Athletic – who went on to make his debut (and score his first goal) on 9 April.

5 March 1949: Burnley 1 Arsenal 1 (Lishman).  After 3 consecutive wins, Arsenal started a run of 6 draws and 1 defeat in 7 games.

5 March 1966: Gus Caesar born. He joined Arsenal in August 1982 becoming a pro in February 1984 playing in the heart of the defence or full back.  He was highly praised for his first match (away to Man U on 21 December 1985) and seen as a great prospect. He got three England under 21 caps in 1987 and in 1987/8 graduated to a fairly consistent position in the first team.

5 March 1977: Willie Young debut.  Arsenal 1 Ipswich 4. Terry Neill said of him after this match, “he tried to play like Pele”.  This was the 5th consecutive defeat in the record breaking run.

5 March 1980: Arsenal 5 Gothenburg 1. Cup Winners Cup.  (Sunderland 2, Price, Brady and Young got the goals).

5 March 1986: Luton 3 Arsenal 0  FA Cup 5th round 2nd replay in a month in which Arsenal achieved four league wins and suffered three league defeats.

5 March 1994: Ipswich 1 Arsenal 5 provided the setting for Ian Wright’s fifth hat trick.  It came after six games in which Arsenal scored just four goals in total, and was followed by Southampton 0 Arsenal 4.

5 March 2002: Arsenal beat Derby to go top in win number 4 of 13 consecutive wins.  League match 29 of the 3rd Double season

5 March 2016: Tottenham 2 Arsenal 2.  Ramsey and Sanchez scored. After three defeats in succession this draw was a relief, but only temporarily, as Arsenal then lost two of the next three.  All told Arsenal lost five out of seven games in Feb/March, before ending the season with a run of nine matches unbeaten, including a 4-0 victory in the FA Cup final.