Legendary striking duo, Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole have bemoaned how far Manchester United have fallen from the standards that their great side of the late 1990s and early 2000s set.
Both players played a pivotal role in the club’s success in that era and none more so than in the majestic 1998-1999 season, where they scored a combined 53 goals in all competitions as the Red Devils became the first English side to win the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League.
Speaking at the premiere of the new Amazon documentary on the 1999 Treble, the two strikers criticised the current standing of the club.
Speaking on the red carpet Cole claimed, “I have never seen 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 added to the concern by stating, “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.”
Both players then commented on how this weekend’s opponent, Arsenal, used to be mocked for celebrating Champions League qualification like winning a trophy but that this current United side are even very far away from achieving this.
The Englishman said, “Arsenal used to finish fourth and celebrate like they’d won the league and we used to laugh at them. That’s where we are.”
Yorke added, “it’s crazy how the mindset has changed now and to hear me even get into that sort of conversation [fourth place] and we aren’t even qualifying for that.”
It is difficult viewing to see the trajectories of the two clubs and before tomorrow’s crunch tie between the two at Old Trafford, there is a chasm of 29 points between the two teams with the Gunners top of the tree and the Red Devils in a lowly eighth.
Arsenal also boast an impressive goal difference of 60 while United have a pathetic minus three after 35 matches.
Adding to the challenge that INEOS have to bring the club back to the top table of English football, Yorke claimed that he would no longer sign for the club if he was a player now.
The Trinidad and Tobago international made the switch from Aston Villa in 1998 but he would sign for a different team now he claims.
“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.”
United will hope to at least finish the season on a positive note with three crucial league fixtures coming up, as they can still qualify for the Europa League in sixth place. Naturally, fans and players alike will be dreaming of overturning the odds heavily stacked against them and beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final in two weeks.
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