Willie Young was a Scottish defender who had a distinguished but occasionally controversial career with Aberdeen, Tottenham, Arsenal and Notts Forest before joining Norwich in August 1983.

He made his Scottish league debut for Aberdeen in September 1970 and made 187 appearances for them until moving to England with Spurs in September 1975. Scottish Under 23 honours were gained whilst at Pittodrie but full international honours were denied him following an incident in a Copenhagen bar. 54 league games for Spurs was followed by a move across North London to Arsenal in March 1977 where he made 170 league appearances as well as playing in FA and European Cup Winners Cup finals. He will be remembered for his cynical foul on Paul Allen in the 1980 FA Cup Final that the Gunners lost to West Ham. I remember this match as if it was yesterday as it was the first cup final that I watched in its entirety. Willie left Arsenal for Forest in December 1981 and made 59 league appearances for the Nottingham side. Throughout his career, he had a decent goalscoring record for a central defender scoring 3 league goals for Spurs, 11 for Arsenal and 5 for Forest.

His spell at Carrow Road was beset with injury problems and only six first team appearances were made. His contract was canceled and Willie joined Brighton in December 1983. 4 league appearances for the South Coast side were followed by a similar total for Darlington before he retired in November 1984. Willie currently runs the Bramcote Manor restaurant in Nottingham and runs kennels in Leicestershire.