The Deadly Duo - Dwight Yorke (left) and Andy Cole (right) lift the Champions League trophy (middle!)

Former Reds Legend, Dwight Yorke, today announced that he was calling it a day on his playing career at the age of 37.

Yorke was, of course, a key figure in Manchester United’s treble-winning team of 98/99.

I remember watching Yorke play for Aston Villa prior to us signing him and always felt he would be a great addition to our team. He wasn’t a particularly prolific goalscorer in his early Aston Villa career but in the years just before we bought him, his goals-to-games ratio was around one in two and this is surely what made Fergie decide to bring him. The lad was at his peak.

What Fergie could not have envisaged was the way he and Andy Cole hit it off to become arguably the deadliest strike-force the Premier League has ever seen. In fact, I am certain Fergie didn’t envisage it because he hardly played them together when Yorke first arrived!

But when they were finally united, it was almost guaranteed that one of them would score and some of their interchanges had people believing that there was almost some kind of telepathy going on between them!

Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s arrival in 2001 pretty much spelled the end for both Yorke and Cole as he was such an instant hit and neither Yorke nor Cole (hitting 30 at that stage) were getting any younger whilst RVN was coming into his prime.

However, Yorke left United having won three successive Premier League winners medals, a Champions League winners medal, one FA Cup winners medal and an Intercontinental Cup winners medal and it was by far the most successful period of his long career.

To this day, Dwight still speaks fondly of United and Sir Alex Ferguson:

“I’ve been blessed really. I’ve played alongside some of the greatest players the Premier League has ever seen in Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Peter Schmeichel, and played for the greatest manager in Sir Alex Ferguson. I’ll always count myself lucky. I was a boy on a beach from a little Caribbean island that got the chance to fulfil his dream of winning trophies at the highest level and captaining his country in their first ever World Cup finals.”

I have many great memories of Yorkey but I cannot remember the guy never having a smile on his face.

He says that he would like to become a manager of an English Club and if he’s half as good at that as he was a striker, he’ll be a good ‘un.

All the best Dwight. Thanks for the memories, the goals, the trophies and for cheering me up every time I watched you play!