saw Celtic progress 3–2 on aggregate. Nicholas later said of his goal, "That was probably my all-time favourite goal. My greatest game." Nicholas was now being described as the most outstanding young player to emerge in Scotland since Kenny Dalglish. He displayed an excellent touch and great vision on the ball and possessed a strong shot with both feet. The only asset he lacked was a turn of pace, although his other attributes covered for that. His partnership up front with Frank McGarvey helped Nicholas become the leading goalscorer in Scotland and one of the best strikers in the British game. On 4 December 1982, he opened the scoring for Celtic in their 2–1 win over Rangers in the 1982 Scottish League Cup Final. After New Year, Nicholas became the centre of intense media speculation linking him with a move to England; with television, radio and newspapers journalists travelling north to cover Nicholas' goalscoring exploits. The Celtic star was featured regularly on the Saturday lunch-time television show Saint and Greavsie which showed Nicholas' latest goals. Despite his prolific goalscoring, the uncertainty over his future at Celtic appeared to unsettle the team towards the end of the season and they ended up losing the league to Dundee United. In the final league match of the season, Nicholas scored twice from penalty kicks as Celtic recovered from a 2–0 deficit at half-time against Rangers to win 4–2. At the end of the game he ran behind the goal to wave what appeared to be his "goodbyes" to the Celtic fans. He finished the season with 48 goals and won both the Scottish PFA Player of the Year and Scottish Football Writers' Player of the Year awards. The weeks that followed the end of the season saw Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal all being strongly linked with signing Nicholas. Liverpool's Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness, whom Nicholas knew from being with in the Scotland international squad, made strenuous efforts to persuade Nicholas to come to Anfield. Tottenham Hotspur and Inter Milan were also interested in signing the Celtic player. Arsenal Terry Neill signed Nicholas for Arsenal on 22 June 1983 for a transfer fee of £750,000, making him at the time the second most expensive export from the Scottish league. As a 21-year-old at the time of his move to Arsenal, he reportedly became the highest paid footballer in Britain and was described