Dwight Yorke and Andrew Cole were not only an incredible strike force at Manchester United, but they’ve always been close mates.
The pair have been scathing about their former club, saying they used to joke about Arsenal “celebrating fourth place”, yet Erik ten Hag’s team will finish outside the top four this season.
United host Arsenal on Sunday and sit eighth in the Premier League. It doesn’t look good for European football next season and we can completely forget about competing in the Champions League. That opportunity was wasted due to poor results on the pitch and injuries have not helped.
The best points return United can hope for now is 63 – the lowest our team has managed in the Premier League era.
However, Yorke and Cole remember better times at United after playing key roles in the 1998/99 treble of the league, FA Cup and European Cup. We became the first English club to do so.
Yorke and Cole contributed 53 goals between them that season.
Speaking at the premiere of ‘99’, the three-episode Amazon documentary about the Treble-winning campaign that will be available from next Friday, both were critical of how far United have fallen.
Cole said (via The Guardian): “I never saw Manchester United being in this position, I’ve got to be brutally honest. The team I was involved in left a legacy for players who want to come to the club and try to emulate us. I look at the team now and teams previously, and you scratch your head, because you’ve got to understand what Manchester United is all about. It’s about winning, competing, pushing for major honours.
“We’re so far away. We keep saying: ‘Oh another couple of years,’ but it’s been longer. When are Man United going to be involved in the title race?”
Yorke said: “It’s so far apart [from our team], it’s not even close. What is more painful is we can’t even qualify for the Champions League. That’s the minimum. You can accept you aren’t close to winning the league but when you aren’t even qualifying for the Champions League, that’s a whole new [low] level.”
After playing under Ferguson, Yorke also compared his teams to what United have now.
“There was a structure [under Ferguson],” he said. “Everybody played a position and what you see now is a structure out of sync. You’ve got players running forward when they don’t need to.”
Yorke also said United are no longer a first-choice England club to sign for.
“If you’ve got the likes of Liverpool and Man City after you then United is in the second tier,” he said. “[Now] I wouldn’t want to play [for United] – it’s whether you want to face that sort of aggravation coming in.”
Hence why Yorke has empathy with Rasmus Hojlund.
“It’s just a real bad place to be if you are a United player, not just a centre-forward. It’s knowing that there’s a lack of creativity, lack of passion, the negative talk about the team.”
More must-reads: