How GOOD were Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke?

Chemistry.

The main reason why you can’t throw together a group of star players and expect them to perform wonders on the field. If the chemistry isn’t there, chances are that the results won’t follow.

However, chemistry was never a problem for the subjects of this article. In fact, back in the day, when two striker formations were still the talk of the town, these two ranked all the way up there with the best of the best.

I’m speaking of course, about Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke.

If you saw these two play together, you know exactly what I mean when I say that they’re relationship was as close to telepathy as us mere humans can ever hope to achieve.

In their prime, they linked together to form one of the most potent strike partnerships that Europe has seen in recent memory.

Although, they’re exploits are best known from roughly around the turn of the century. With that in mind, it might be worthwhile to get a bit of a refresher regarding what exactly the two were capable of.

Which brings us to the question of the day; how good were Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke?

Before we go into detail regarding their successes on the pitch and how they achieved legendary status, I thought it may be worthwhile to take a brief look at the paths that led them to Manchester United in the first place.

Let’s start things off with Andy Cole.

Table of Contents

Andy Cole

Humble Nottingham beginnings

Born in Nottingham in 1971, Andrew Cole was born into an immigrant family. His parents had emigrated from Jamaica to the UK in 1957. Growing up both of his parents were extremely hard working and did all that they could to instil that mindset into him and his siblings.

His family was also particularly sporty. Cole has even gone as far as claiming that if it weren’t for football, he would have pursued a career in cricket.

Early Career

At the age of 16, in 1988, Cole joined the Arsenal youth set-up, later signing a professional contract for the club in 1989.

Despite his clear talent, Cole faced stiff competition for starting positions in the first team. He only played 1 match for the Arsenal first team before eventually being loaned out, first to Fulham and then to Bristol City.

After spending two seasons at Bristoll City, Cole began to impress coaches all over the country and was regularly rumoured to be on the brink of a big transfer to one of the bigger clubs in England.

Newcastle

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And in February 1993, Kevin Keagan’s Newcastle came knocking to add some truth to those rumors. At the time he made the switch to St James’s park, he was 22 years of age.

At Newcastle, Cole truly grew into one of the most dangerous front men around, scoring and assisting virtually at will. While Newcastle were in the first division when Cole signed, they were definitely on the rise as a dangerous team.

In his first season with the club, he scored a respectable 12 goals in 12 matches, helping the club gain promotion to the Premier League.

In the 1993/1994 season, probably his best season ever, in terms of personal number, he won the golden boot, scoring 34 goals in the Premier League, in 40 appearances.

The highest amount of goals scored in a single season, in Premier League history…

Oh, and adding onto that, he made 13 assists, leading the premier league in that stat too.

Granted, back then ,42 games were played in a singular Premier League season, as opposed to the 38 that we are used to nowadays. As a side note, the 38-game season format was only made official in 1995. This was as a result of the number of teams in the league being reduced from 22 to 20.

Back to Andy Cole.

You heard those numbers, right? It’s definitely an understatement to say that he was a hot prospect at this point in time. This season, Newcastle finished in third place, their highest finish in the top division in English football since 1927. This also remains as the last time that Newcastle won the top division in English football.

So, with a season like that, you’d expect that Cole would go on and build a long-lasting career as a legendary Newcastle player, right? Wrong.

The very next season Cole only managed 9 goals in 18 appearances before reportedly heavily falling out with the Newcastle manager, Kevin Keagan. The specific reasoning for this is slightly unclear, however, it seems the gist of it is that Keagan believed that Cole had let his achievements get to his head. Cole, however, believed that Keagan was being overly harsh with him.

In a shock turn of events, Cole was sold only halfway through season. That’s right, roughly 6 months after a record-breaking season for Newcastle.

Much like the rest of the country, Sir Alex Ferguson sensed the rift that had formed between Keagan and Cole and grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

Manchester United

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Cole joined Manchester United in January 1995 for a transfer fee of £7 million, a British transfer record, at the time.

Over the next three years, despite picking up two Premier League titles, Cole experienced a plethora of highs and lows.

At the end of his first season with United, he missed several big chances, as United drew to West Ham in the last game of the season. The significance of this is that Blackburn Rovers ended up winning the title by a single point, with United having to settle for second.

In addition to this, he had to fight for starting positions with the likes of Eric Cantona and, later, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He picked up a few nasty injuries. And there was even a point in 1996, where United offered him in a swap deal, in an attempt to sign Alan Shearer from Blackburn Rovers.

Over his first three seasons with Manchester United, he only scored 29 goals in 72 appearances in the league.

However, by the time the 1997/1998 season came along, Eric Cantona had just announced his unexpected retirement from football. As a result, Cole took on the role of the first-choice striker for United.

Right on schedule, he began to look more like his former self, scoring 15 goals in 33 appearances in the League, forming a strong on-field partnership with Teddy Sheringham.

Despite this, it’s very public knowledge that Cole and Sheringham did not see eye to eye off the pitch. Sheringham’s refusal to shake Cole’s hand when he came on as a substitute for him in an English international match is something that started a near two-decade long feud. It was only very recently, in 2019, that this feud was came to a conclusion.

Taking things back to 1998, despite Cole’s upturn in form this season, United fell short of the Premier League title by a single point once more. This time, at the hands of Arsenal, who had recently been completely revamped by Arsène Wenger.

In response to this, at the beginning of the 1998/99 season, United were looking to add some additional firepower to the team.

Gabriel Batistuta and Patrick Kluivert were both high on Sir Alex Ferguson’s wish list. However, seeing as how both of these players chose not to make the switch to old Trafford, the search continued.

Pause right there.

This is probably a great point to shift our focus towards the second protagonist of this story.

Dwight Yorke

Humble Tobago Beginnings

Like Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke was born in 1971, Yor ke and his family came from Canaan, a small town in Tobago. He is one of nine children in his family, coming out as the eighth of the nine.

Things were incredibly tough for Yorke and his family early on in life. They came from an extremely poor background. So much so that he decided early on that it was in his and his family’s best interest to focus on sports and find a way to provide for them.

Also similar to Cole, he came from a very sporty family. One of his older sisters was an avid netball and basketball player, and one of his older brothers even represented Trinidad and Tobago in cricket, on an international level.

Youth Career

In 1989, at 17 years of age, Yorke took a break from school in order to focus on helping Trinidad and Tobago qualify for the 1990 World Cup in Italy. As the story goes, on one particular day, Yorke was representing Trinidad and Tobago in a friendly match against the USA in the summer of 1998.

As fate would have, Aston Villa were completing a tour of the West Indies around the same time. The Aston Villa manager at the time, Graham Taylor, happened to be in attendance of this match.

Despite the fact that Yorke was on the losing side of this match, Graham Taylor had surely seen enough to convince himself that he had just stumbled upon potentially the next big star.

Aston Villa

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After a trial, Yorke was offered a permeant contract with the club in 1989. He made his debut for Aston Villa in the 1989/1990 season; however, he only began making regular appearances in the following season.

He started life off as a right winger for Aston Villa, but didn’t quite find his shooting boots right away. In his first full season in English football, he played 18 matches, only finding the back of the net twice

However, he did start to show his goal scoring instinct as he went on to score 11 goals in 32 matches in the 1991/1992 season of the English first division.

In the inaugural season of the premier league in 1992, Yorke continued to play on the right wing, scoring 6 times in 27 appearances. Villa managed to finish second this season. Their highest ever finish in the Premier League to date.

Over the next two seasons, Villa began to regress, finishing 10^th and then 18^th in consecutive seasons. Yorke’s form was no different. He only scored 8 goals in 49 league appearances in this two year time frame.

However, by the time that the 1995/1996 season came along, it seems as though the higher ups at Villa realised a critical mistake that they’d been making for several seasons.

Dwight Yorke had been playing out of position this whole time.

After shifting to the centre forward position, the goals inevitably came pouring in. He scored 17 goals in this same season, and followed this up, by scoring 17 goals once more in the following season.

By the end of the 1997/1998 season, Yorke had done enough to grab the attention of clubs all over Europe. Although he loved Aston Villa deeply and had developed a genuine appreciation for everything, they had done for him, he yearned to play football at the highest level.

Knowing that he was unlikely to earn a world cup winners medal with his native Trinidad and Tobago, he set his eyes on the next big thing; the Champions league. In the same vein, he knew he was unlikely to achieve this feat at Aston Villa.

Therefore, the questioned remained w hat did he need to do to get to where he wanted to be?

Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole at Manchester United

So back to where we left off earlier. Where were we? Ah, yes. In the summer of 1998, Manchester United were in the market for some additional firepower. In steps Dwight Yorke. After a rather ugly transfer saga, Dwight Yorke eventually transferred to Manchester United for a whopping £12.6 million.

Ironically enough, early on in the transfer negotiations, Villa reportedly stated that they would only agree to the transfer if they got Andy Cole as part of the deal.

Moving along, at the beginning of the 1998/99 season, United had four high quality strikers to choose from, with only 2 spots available. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Teddy Sheringham, Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke.

However, as the season progressed, it was clear that Cole and Yorke were the best pairing by a country mile.

100% Chemistry

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You’ve probably noticed by now that I’ve only really spoken about their achievements and accolades up until this point. I haven’t really spoken about either of their specific skill sets, playing ability, characteristics on the field or athleticism.

There is a reason for this.

I thought it may be better to talk about this part of their game as one combined segment. You see, regardless of whether you believe in destiny or not, it’s hard to argue against the fact that these two were simply made to play alongside one another.

Throughout most of football history, striking partnerships have mostly been built on players that each have different, complimentary characteristics. I’m talking about the big man/little man type of partnerships where one player is physically dominant and the other nimble and athletic.

Cole and Yorke on the other hand, were quite similar in a lot of ways. They both possessed a good turn of pace, both had a good passing range, aerial ability, positional sense and ruthless finishing ability at long or short range.

Although, they did exhibit some differences. Yorke was probably the flashier of the two, possessing great dribbling skills and had a knack for scoring chipped goals. While Cole was more of a straight shooter. Very little flash, there to do the job at hand.

However, putting all of that to the side, let’s not forget the X factor that really made them tick; their actual relationship. Remember, Cole was a player that had suffered through several hardships in his professional career. Not only in terms of injuries and his fluctuating form, but also his professional relationships. (picture of Teddy Sheringham)

When Yorke joined United, for all intents and purposes, the starting position for Cole and every other striker at the club was in jeopardy. Regardless, Cole went out of his way to make sure Yorke acclimatised well to the life in Manchester, regularly inviting him over for dinner with his family and extending every pleasantry.

These two clicked both on and off the field, which I personally believe was one of the main reasons for their incredible success together.

Terrifying defenders

In their first match together as a striking partnership, both Cole and Yorke got on the scoresheet in a match against Southampton. Andy Cole claimed the assist for Yorke’s goal.

Their on-field chemistry was fully on display throughout their first season together, with several immaculate performances. One particular standout performance came in the Champions league against Barcelona in the group stages of the competition. The game ended 3-3, with Yorke scoring twice and Cole scoring once. However, it was Cole’s goal that got all the attention. And for good reason too. Here, their telephathic relationship was there for all to witness.

Regarding silverware, let’s get into what these two accomplished together. In their first season together, United made history by winning an unprecedented treble; A Premier League, an FA Cup, and a Champions league, in the same season.

In addition to this, they scored 53 goals between them, with 35 in the premier league. Cole scored 17 in the league, while Yorke scored 18. Yorke won the Premier League player of the season award as well as the Golden boot this season.

These two were quite simply a defender’s nightmare.

The 1999/2000 season saw more of the same, with United winning yet another Premier League title. This time, the pair scored a combined 45 goals in all competitions with Yorke scoring 23 and Cole scoring 22.

Although United picked up their third title in as many years in 2001, Cole and Yorke began to decline. With each only scoring 9 goals this season in the League.

Leaving Manchester United

By 2002, Ruud van Nistelrooy had been brought to the club, and formed a strong partnership with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. This rendered both Cole and Yorke surplus to requirement. They actually both ended up leaving United very shortly after one another.

Cole left halfway through the 2001/2002 season, in January. And Yorke left at the end of the same season, in July. They were both 30 years of age at this point.

Now I’m sure it comes as no surprise that they actually ended up at the same destination: Blackburn Rovers.

Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke after Manchester United

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At Blackburn, the pair kept the party going for a further two years. Understandably, their prime years were behind the both of them (and what a prime, might I add). However, in the two seasons they spent together at Blackburn, Cole scored 37 goals in 100 appearances and Yorke scored 19 goals in 74 appearances.

Not too bad at all.

However. Nothing lasts forever. In 2004, they eventually went their separate ways, with each of them playing for several clubs, as their careers winded down.

Yorke played for Birmingham City, Sydney FC and Sunderland before eventually retiring in 2009, at 37 years of age.

Cole went on to play for clubs such as Fulham, Manchester City, Portsmouth and also Sunderland.

Funnily enough, they did briefly both play together once more. Reuniting at Sunderland in 2007. Even further to that, their former teammate, Roy Keane was their manager. However, Cole only ended up playing 3 games for the club before moving onto Burnley and then Nottingham Forest.

He retired from the game in 2008, also at 37 years of age.

Closing Thoughts

In closing, Cole and Yorke were two of the finest strikers around during their time. Their understanding of the game, and of one another, is something that all managers and players hope to come across in their careers. And, realistically, very few of them do.

However, that is precisely what made thee two so special. Well, that and the multitude of goals and trophies that they each won throughout their careers. Their time playing together, as well as their own individual careers is something that will last for a very, very long time in the memories of all those who follow the game.

Certified legends, the both of them.