Dwight Yorke and Andrew Cole have been scathing about their former club Manchester United, saying they used to joke about Arsenal “celebrating fourth place”, yet Erik ten Hag’s team cannot even aspire to that position now.
United host Arsenal on Sunday sitting eighth on 54 points, 13 behind Aston Villa in the final Champions League berth, with only nine points left to play for. At best Ten Hag’s side will finish on 63, United’s lowest tally in the Premier League era. Yorke and Cole enjoyed glittering careers at United, the highlight being the strikers’ key roles in the 1998-99 treble of league, FA Cup and European Cup, the first by an English club, in which they contributed 53 goals between them.
Speaking at the premiere of 99, the three-episode Amazon documentary about that campaign that will be available from next Friday, both were critical of how far United have fallen.
Cole said: “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.”
Arsenal begin the weekend as leaders on 83 points, one ahead of Manchester City, who have played a match fewer. Mikel Arteta has transformed the Gunners into title challengers in the past two seasons, 20 years after their last championship win.
Cole 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 said: “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.”
Yorke and Cole played under Sir Alex Ferguson, whose ethos was to be on the front foot. Yorke claimed that Ferguson’s team had a foundation, unlike Ten Hag’s side. “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.”
Just like old times... 🔴🕰️
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) May 10, 2024
𝟗𝟗, a new series about @ManUtd's treble-winning 1998/99 team, coming to Prime Video on 17 May 📺 pic.twitter.com/MGOHq0lTrd
Yorke said United are no longer a first-choice English 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.”
He has empathy with Rasmus Højlund who signed last summer aged 20 and who has struggled for service, scoring only 14 goals. “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.”
Meanwhile, the under-fire Ten Hag is confident “common sense” will prevail as the Old Trafford club’s decision-makers consider his future.
Eighth-placed United now limp into Sunday’s clash against table-topping Arsenal, then have two further league games before attention turns to the FA Cup final. The 25 May meeting with Manchester City offers the chance to end a poor season on a high, but that success was not enough for his compatriot Louis van Gaal to save his job in 2016.
Asked if he was concerned that winning the FA Cup may still end up with the same outcome that befell his fellow Dutchman, Ten Hag said: “No, I think they have common sense.
“They see when you have 32 different backlines, when you lose eight centre-backs, if they see we use 13 partnerships at centre-halves. When they see we don’t have a left full-back, when we have so many injuries, they know that will have a negative impact on results. Of course we are not happy, but we know the reasons why we are underperforming in the ranking now and that is because of the injuries.”
Ten Hag brushed aside suggestions that it would be beneficial for them to publicly confirm he would continue next season, saying it is a “question you have to make to the owners, not to me”.
Put to him that the lack of clarity leads him to face a myriad of questions about his future, the United manager said: “That’s my job. I take responsibility for that, to speak with you. That’s why I am the manager, to give the answers. I don’t care if they do, or they don’t. I’m working on improving my team, to develop my team. That is my job here.”
