‘He could only tell me to f*** off, which he did’: Dwight Yorke recalls how he asked Sir Alex Ferguson for a year off WITH PAY after helping Manchester United to the treble in 1999 as everything else after that season would have been a ‘failure’
- Dwight Yorke has revealed he asked Sir Alex Ferguson for a year off football
- Striker wanted some time off after Manchester United’s treble-winning season
- He thought there was nothing more to achieve after that phenomenal campaign
- Sir Alex told him to ‘f*** off’ when Yorke went into his office to ask for time away
Dwight Yorke has revealed how he sensationally asked Sir Alex Ferguson for a year away from football just after helping Manchester United to their famous treble in 1999.
The striker, now 48, was a crucial part of the United side that won the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup during a glorious campaign for the Red Devils.
Yorke formed a formidable strike partnership with Andy Cole that season and scored 29 goals in 52 appearances across all competitions.
Dwight Yorke has recalled how he once asked Sir Alex Ferguson for a year away from football
Yorke asked Ferguson for time off after helping United win the treble back in 1998-99
But during a recent appearance on the UTD Podcast, Yorke was asked about a story where he went in to Sir Alex’s office to gain his permission to take a 12-month sabbatical in order to celebrate the treble and recharge.
When asked if it was true, Yorke replied: ‘Yeah but with pay. I mean what else is there to do in football after winning the treble?
‘I was on such a high. It was ridiculous. Concorde was flying back then and I remember we went to New York. Back in the days they used to put you up with the pilot.
‘I got to New York and I thought “what else is there to achieve after this?” because everything else will be a failure or deemed as a failure.
‘I went into the gaffer’s office and said “what are we doing? After winning the treble there’s nothing to do. Can I have a year off from football with pay? and then I’ll come back the next year rejoin the team”.
‘I honestly don’t know what made me think that. What more could we possibly do as a team? Yeah we could repeat it but if you don’t then the team is a failure.
‘If there was a time you were going to ask the gaffer for anything, that was it. I didn’t have anything to lose.
‘He could only tell me to f*** off, which he did. He said “f*** off and get lost”.
‘It was jokingly but if he had said to take a year off then I would have done. But I knew that wasn’t going to happen so I thought it was worth a try.’
Yorke scored 29 goals in 52 appearances across all competitions as United won three trophies
Yorke (L) lifts the Champions League trophy alongside Andy Cole (R) at the Nou Camp
Yorke recently hit out at Roy Keane (L) for his harsh criticism of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side
Earlier this month Yorke hit out at Roy Keane, another member of the 1999 treble-winning side, for his harsh criticism of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s current United crop.
It came after Keane’s rant about David de Gea after his gaffe against Tottenham last month, where he claimed he would have been swinging punches at half-time.
‘I know what he’s like,’ said Yorke, who also played under Keane when he was Sunderland manager.
‘He says what he likes to say. Some people buy into it, some don’t.
‘We all make mistakes. He wasn’t perfect when he played. He made mistakes along the way. He has to tone that back a little bit. Maybe one of the downfalls which I recognised from his management career is that the way he delivered his approach to players could be quite offensive.
‘Brian Clough, Ron Atkinson, maybe even Sir Alex Ferguson sometimes, they give those kind of rollickings. Players of yesterday could easily dust those kind of comments off.
‘Things have changed. It’s the way you go about it which is important and that’s one of Keane’s problems: he doesn’t know how to deliver it.’
