Catching up with... Tom Youngs
Catching up with... Tom Youngs
On Dave Kitson, living with MS and being a Championship Manager wonderkid
182 appearances. 48 goals. One magnificent promotion. Tom Youngs came through United’s academy, and in Roy McFarland’s team became a true fan’s favourite - an accolade he can still proudly boast to this day. Over a six-year spell at the U’s, he was our top scorer for two consecutive seasons between 2000 and 2002, and ended his career in amber as our 11th all-time top scorer. In 2015, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which he wrote about in his autobiography in 2016.
It was a pleasure to catch up with Tom and hear more about his time at United.
Hi Tom, thanks for taking the time to speak with us. It was great to see you back at the Abbey as part of the Former Players Day against Blackpool back in August, so let’s start there. How did you come to break into the first team under Roy McFarland
Well, I’d been part of the youth set up since I was nine, great memories of going to the playoff final at Wembley when John Beck was in charge, but I got my first pro contract in 1997. I’d started the season in the youth team and then within about three weeks I was on the bench against Colchester, and it just spiralled from there.
What was the club like at that time, as it was just as Tommy Taylor had left and McFarland came in?
I was obviously quite young at the time, but I’d known Tommy for a long time having played in Under 18 teams and gone on tours with him so I knew him pretty well. I didn’t really know much about Roy McFarland at the time. Luckily when he came in I was playing in an FA Youth Cup match against Colchester at the Abbey and I made a good impression so…
You weren’t tempted to follow Taylor down to Orient like a few of the other lads then?
Haha, no, I’d come through the ranks at Cambridge, and was trying to get a pro-deal, and after I’d made such a good impression on Roy I felt it made it much more likely that I could fulfil my dreams here.
What was McFarland like as a manager? It’s fair to say he had a difficult time winning the fans round at first.
It was difficult. Tommy was popular with the fans, and we’d lost a couple of big players and just dropped out of the playoff spots. It was my first season as a pro and it was his rebuild season really, but we didn’t have a great finish, around 14th or 15th, then by the end of the season Trevor Benjamin started getting in the team, Shaggy (John Taylor) was playing really really well, and we grew from there really.
No one who played for him would have a bad word to say against Roy. He was great, like a real father figure for us really. We had such a young squad, I think Wannie (Paul Wanless) was one of the oldest and he was like 25 at the time. Everyone was a really similar age, wanting to do the same things and establish themselves in the game. Roy wasn’t exactly a master tactician or anything like that, but he knew football very well and being able to build a team was his biggest strength.
Once you broke through, we ended up winning promotion that next season in 1998/99. What was that season like?
We had a really strong side, and I’d been involved right from the start, I was playing up front with Buts (Martin Butler) and we were playing pretty well together. Then Roy decided he wanted to go with someone a bit bigger and stronger so Shaggy came back into the side. It was great to be a part of it and I think I ended up playing about 10 games that season, but I was mainly on the bench so didn’t always feel involved. It wasn’t till our first season in Division Two (League One) that I really broke through.
We stayed up that following season against the odds didn’t we?
Yeah, I had a few injuries so it took me a while to get established but I got my first goal away at Gillingham, and then got injured again which was frustrating. Then at the end of January we played Wigan, we were two points adrift at the bottom of the League, they were top, we’d just sold Buts, and I came on out wide because Alex Russell had got injured. I scored a last minute equaliser and stayed in the side for a few weeks having a bit of an impact, so it was great.
Then the next season we got off to a brilliant start..
Yep, that was the season that was famously derailed by the petrol shortage, I think our game at Swindon was the only game in the League that was called off. We’d beat Port Vale 4-0 and Rotherham 6-1, but for me that season all hinged on when we lost Zema (Abbey, to Norwich for £350,000). He was so important, he fitted into our team really well, he suited the way we played and he just knitted us all together. He got hold of things really well up front, he was reliable with the ball, he could run in behind powerfully, and we just felt really settled for those first 10-12 games, and we couldn’t really replace him. Shaggy came back in but he was like 37/38 at the time. He did brilliant, but he wasn’t the same.
There were some big teams in that League, Cardiff, QPR, and that’s the difficulty of being at a smaller side. You had Stoke as well, and it was great to be able to play at some of those big grounds, but it didn’t always translate into great performances.
Except at Stoke…
Yes, Marcus (Richardson) on his debut and the defender fell over the ball! Their defender missed it, we won 3-2. Me and Shaggy started up front, and Marcus and Kits (Dave Kitson) came on as subs. That was Kits’ debut too.
Could you tell even back then that Kitson would go on to play at the level he did?
I saw him at the Former Players Day, it was the first time I’d spoke to him in about 5 or 6 years. I used to get on really well with him, he wasn’t in any way a typical type of footballer at all. He was stacking shelves and playing for Arlesey. One of Becky (John Beck)’s scouts saw him and bought him in on trial. The first day I saw him, he was like the most two-footed player I’d ever seen. And he’d had no professional training at all. No youth team, no professional football, nothing. But he was something special, you could tell straight away.
He was really really gifted with both feet, and just so comfortable on the ball. I always thought playing at the highest level would be the trajectory his career took because he had so much ability.
So this was all under John Beck right, in his second spell at the club. How was that for you?
It was tricky, for me as a player I knew that I was going to be basically the antithesis of what he needed or wanted. He couldn’t get rid of me or anything like that, but it was difficult for him as he didn’t really have a massive budget, so he would have to deal with what he had. And what he had wasn’t particularly suited for the way he wanted to play. He was probably a bit compromised from the start.
One thing that happened when Roy got sacked was that Lionel (Perez) had to come out of his shell a bit and impose himself on the dressing room more. He was usually quite quiet, kept himself to himself. But Lionel had to adapt to the way Beck wanted to play football, it was important for Beck that the keeper could do what he wanted. It wasn’t necessarily easy for Lionel, but he was a fantastic shot stopper. He was prone to the odd mad dash out of the box though, I think he got sent off three or four times!
You said it was difficult that Beck didn’t have the budget to bring in his players, but he still bought in a few of his favourites…
Yep, Colin (Alcide), Deano (Walling). He was a great lad, I can’t remember how old he was at that stage, probably not in the prime of his career, but he still looked good.
Did the lack of budget ever cause problems for the players?
I think it affected the squad we could assemble because of the wages we could offer, but as I grew up at the club I always had a rose tinted view, we always had a fantastic pitch. We had a great following everywhere we went, we trained at a couple of the Cambridge colleges, so from a players point of view there were no problems to be honest. It was always about, can we compete with other teams in this division who have astronomical budgets compared to us? But it’s a fact of life. We always tried to punch above our weight, and we were always competitive, but maybe not quite good enough. It made it difficult but we worked through it.
How did your time at Cambridge come to an end? Was it your decision or the club’s?
I certainly wasn’t angling to leave, but I could see the way the club was headed, so I thought it was probably the best thing to do at the time. We still had Kits at the time, but I didn’t fancy that he’d stick around much longer, and he was gone by Christmas. I was at the end of my contract, and the club had offered me a new deal, but there was a bit of a disagreement, and I was a bit put out if I’m honest.
It was obvious that the club were going to want to sell me before the end of my contract. Northampton had new owners and were trying to push things along, and it seemed like a good place to hopefully go and be in a side that was challenging. Unfortunately I had a lot of injury problems there, and whilst they did challenge I didn’t play a big part in it. Unfortunately Cambridge were on a downward trajectory at the time, and were in the Conference two seasons later. Me and my wife loved it in Northampton, and then we moved to Bury who were similar to Cambridge in that they were struggling down towards the bottom of the League, but we managed to stay out of it, so it was a challenge but it worked out okay in the end. I loved living near Manchester, it was great.
I couldn’t not mention your reputation on Championship Manager…
It’s so sophisticated these days, but the first one me and my mate used to play was the Italian League version in 96/97. Then the next year’s game came out, and I was in it. I was only about 16, and someone at the club must have said I was quite well thought of or something. There was a couple of us, like Trev (Benjamin) that were stars of the game. And then by the next version, maybe ‘98 or ‘99, it was basically guaranteed that it would be me and Dean Ashton up front for England. It was just mad.
I remember when Darren Byfield came in, on loan from Villa. He’d played five or six times in the Premier League, he had no reason to know who I was. We got in the car to drive to training, I think Wanny was driving, and he introduced everyone, and Darren said he knew me from Championship Manager. It was quite surreal really.
Do you still follow United?
I listen on the radio most weeks, Johno’s still commentating! Obviously things haven’t been going our way, but we’ll see. The last three or four seasons have been a bit chaotic but it’s all turned out okay and we’ve been able to stay in the league so, fingers crossed.
You probably saw the best and worst of times at United, how does that kind of bad run affect footballers thinking?
It’s really difficult, I think we had two long stretches, one in my first season as a pro where we went 15, 16 games without a win. Then once we got promoted and we were up against it again. You do find those things difficult, but you work through them.
I was doing some research earlier and I think you’re the 11th all-time top goalscorer for the U’s. That’s some achievement.
Yes, a few years ago when I was writing my book I’d worked it out that I was 11th. I don’t think much has changed since then, because the thing about Cambridge is it’s quite a transitory place for footballers, no-one’s gonna stay here long enough to hit 50 goals probably. Luke Berry was probably the last one to hit 50, and Paul Mullin came close that season.
You mention that you wrote a book which tackles your MS diagnosis. How did the diagnosis come about, and how are you getting on since?
I was still playing a little bit of non-League, at Mildenhall, and I was assistant manager there. We had an away game at Gorleston, and it was a lovely sunny day, but I found I couldn’t see really well. Then the next week at work I was sat at my screen and I couldn’t see anything, it was all just really blurry. So I phoned Boots and went in for a checkup and she said she couldn’t see anything wrong with my eyes at all, but obviously I couldn’t see. So I was referred to the hospital and that was the start of it really. They said it was optic neuritis, and they said I should look up what that often means. Within six months to a year I’d had a load of tests, and they’d confirmed it was MS. It was pretty difficult. It still is difficult.
The latest thing is my right hand has started playing up. I was still working in the office until last year. My left hand and left leg have mainly been the problem for the last six or seven years, but now my right hand is playing up. It’s not as bad as the left, but is a bit temperamental. It makes typing and using a mouse and stuff hard. I’m hoping it will plateau instead of getting worse, but I really don’t know. That’s the thing, you don’t know and neither do the doctors. I’ve got another brain scan next month, and it’s just seeing how much it progresses. I’m still managing to work a couple of days a week.
The hardest thing is not knowing, because MS is so enigmatic and affects everyone in a different way. Obviously I’ve got my eyepatch and my wheelchair, I’m getting by, it’s not too bad. Once it gets to a certain point it’ll continue to deteriorate, but as long as you get nothing new you can deal with it.
Thanks for your time Tom, and we hope to see you back at the Abbey soon.
Tom’s book ‘What Dreams Are (Not Quite) Made Of is available here.
If you want to find out more about Multiple Sclerosis, Tom recommends the MS Society.