Dwight Yorke fears he may have to help buy football club to get managerial job
Twenty five years on from his key role in one of the greatest triumphs in English football, Dwight Yorke is out of work.
Two and a half decades after his 29 goals helped Manchester United to clinch the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League Treble, the ex-Reds striker has hit a brick wall familiar to thousands of Black footballers in England when they finish playing.
Yorke can point to 14 ex-United team-mates - including Roy Keane, Phil Neville, Gary Neville, Nicky Butt, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jaap Stam - who have had jobs in English football management since their time together under Sir Alex Ferguson.
Yorke’s former Aston Villa team-mate, England manager Gareth Southgate, has previously admitted to being handed the Middlesbrough job in 2006 without having earned his Uefa Pro Licence.
In 2020, winger Raheem Sterling questioned why Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard received high-profile manager jobs after ending their playing careers while Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole had not.
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Now Yorke fears he may have to get together with other Black ex-pros to buy a club, in order to get a foot in the managerial door. “Its been talked about heavily in previous years,” he said. “The people that I come across in football, we’ve spoken about it.
“Forming a consortium, trying to get a football team to get the right backing from maybe black ownership, black millionaires or billionaires, so to speak, to embrace it. It’s something that’s probably worth having a conversation about again in terms of going forward.
“Because, as you know, we keep reverting back to the facts about the struggles of black managers to get into these high positions. So the only way forward, maybe, is to buy a football team.”
Yorke helped United win the treble in 1999 (Alex Livesey /Allsport)Beckham is co-owner of MLS club Inter Miami and also has a share in Salford City FC along with the Neville brothers, Paul Scholes and Singaporean businessman Peter Lim. “Obviously it takes a lot of planning and a lot of due diligence in terms of your research,” said Yorke, “into what it takes and the requirements in terms of passing the Premier League, financial play and getting into that position.
“But yes, [buying a club] is something that I think that we all should look into in terms of trying to advocate for something to elevate ourselves into the football world. Its obviously a tough ask. But it's something that I’d embrace fully, if it was to happen.”
It remains an indictment on the game that an ex-player of Yorke’s standing is forced to even consider such a move to get the kind of role many of his former team-mates can take for granted.
Yorke was a winner of the League Cup with Aston Villa. In total he lifted three Premier League titles with United before going on to win Australia ’s A-League with Sydney FC in 2006. He would help Sunderland clinch promotion to the Premier League in 2007 and, as a Trinidad and Tobago international, he lifted the Caribbean Cup.
Yorke was appointed manager of Australian club Macarthur FC in 2022, but left the role last year (Macarthur FC TV)And two years ago, just five games into a stint Down Under with Macarthur FC, he was a winner of the Australian Cup Final. None of that, however, has had an impact on owners or decision makers at clubs in this country.
“I recall having the conversation with my close friend Andy Cole,” Yorke added. “He said to me: ‘Its a waste of time. You’ll never get a job in English football. He knows what he was talking about. But I embrace the challenge. I like to defy the odds.
“I did it as a player and I’ll do it again as a manager. I showed in Australia that I’m a proven winner, that I can win and manage at any level. But you need that opportunity. Unfortunately, as a player you have control over your ability and when you play.
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“But when you become a manager, you rely on that opportunity to be given to you. So I still have to play the waiting game and it is disheartening at times. It would have been an easy choice for me to just sit there and continue to be an ambassador at Manchester United.
Yorke's former strike partner Andy Cole told him management would be a "waste of time" (Getty Images)“It was travelling the world, meeting all the fans and for some people that would have been sufficient, but not for me. Management is the way forward, and I’m fully committed to the cause.”
Yorke already has a clear vision of the way he wants to play the game, having availed himself of the wisdom of some of the greatest minds in the game. “I’ve spent time with the likes of Pep, Sir Alex, Steve McLaren and Arsene Wenger,” he added.
“They will tell you: everyone wants to play attacking, front-foot football. I love that, being an attacker myself. You want to just score goals But there is a balance here. If you don’t have good structure and a good system in place, then you are always likely to struggle.
“ Burnley, for instance, played superb stuff, real attacking football in the Championship. They were so exciting under Vincent Kompany. And here we are in the Premier League and they can’t even win a game. So you have to be very careful.”
Burnley boss Vincent Kompany is the only black manager in the Premier League (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)While football remains in denial over the lack of Black managers Yorke pointed to the statistics that validate his case. “Around 1.4percent of black players have been given opportunities in management,” he said.
“With over 45% of black representation within the players, that's a big gap. It's been tiptoed around and they even tried to implement the Rooney Rule but that was more of a token gesture. People continue to say: ‘Don’t play the race card’.
“But the facts are there for everyone to see. Go to all the leagues and in Europe and they have very, very, very, very few managers that are black. I’ve lived in England for 30 plus years. I’ve seen people try to make that transition. And here we are.”
Yorke is even open to a Black Players Union to address the issues that remain answered despite being raised by players with the highest profile. “Maybe, maybe something of that magnitude needs to be done,” he said.
“Its more a case of whether the players want to take it on because they’ll know about the challenges ahead. It is so hard. Someone like Andy Cole, the fourth highest Premier League goalscorer of all time, doesn’t want to come anywhere near management because he knows all about the barriers and the unfairness in a game that continues to turn away quality players.”
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Four years ago, then-Tottenham and England defender Danny Rose revealed himself to be among a number of Black players deciding against going into management with the odds stacked against them.
But although Yorke believes the stereotypes levelled at Black players in the eighties still persist now, he believes the current crop should still keep pushing for jobs. “They see you as a terrific athlete. A player with the sort of strength, power and excitement that you bring to the game,” he said.
“But when it actually comes to running clubs and that leadership quality, suddenly it doesn’t register. Suddenly there are those stereotypes, that you are laidback, that you don’t have the right mentality, the right personality, the right leadership quality?
“Or that your communication skills are probably not as good. All these misconceptions, they are the hurtful part of it. But I do encourage the current players from the Championship, the Premier League, from all levels - go and take your coaching badges.
“Do all the necessary things to learn the trades of management and leadership. The course provides you with all the relevant information. And coming out of those courses, you’ll be well equipped and ready to then take on the challenge of being a manager. Stay positive and continue to strive to be better.”
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