Neueonlinecasinos.io have sat down with the legendary Premier League forward, Dwight Yorke, who suggested that Manchester United could sign Harry Kane like when the Red Devils signed Robin van Persie.
Yorke also talked about the Folarin Balogun situation with his potential nationality change after not making the England team last month, calling this generation of footballers ’soft‘.
There were also some nostalgic memories of when the striker resumed his partnership with Andy Cole when they both joined Blackburn Rovers.
Full Transcript
Q: Man United host Brentford, will it be a chance to get revenge for the 4-1 humiliation at the start of the season?
DY: „I don’t like the word revenge, I don’t think it’s the right approach but Manchester United did make mistakes against Brentford earlier on in the season. Brentford overran them, and I think the Manchester United players did not have the mentality to withstand a team away from home. Now, they’re in a much better place, Brentford will be in for a tough game and Manchester United have a better team and have improved physically too.
„Sir Alex Ferguson always let us know that these teams will come to Old Trafford to work their socks off, but if we could match them with desire then we would win. A tough game but I expect Manchester United to win 2-0.“
Q: With all that’s going on with Tottenham at the moment, would you suggest Harry Kane joins Manchester United or any other Premier League team?
DY: „Harry Kane will evaluate the whole situation at the end of the season. Kane has just become England and Tottenham’s all-time top goalscorer, so I can’t imagine he’d be too worried at the moment. I don’t think Antonio Conte was on about Kane when he complained about his players, because Kane does not achieve what he has if he was not a winner and a dedicated player. Kane can just relax and see where Tottenham finish at the end of the season.
„Moving to Manchester United will not guarantee him winning something, but Kane will want to win a league title because Alan Shearer was able to do it. Winning personal accolades is great but winning trophies with your team is what football is all about, it’s a team sport, so he might have to make a difficult decision. Kane’s decision to leave the club will be a lot easier if Tottenham don’t make it into the top four, because he can’t go through another year not playing at the top level. Harry Kane not having a trophy in his cabinet will not resonate well with a player’s history, he’d be remembered more as an individual and not as a team player.“
Q: Your old mate Andy Cole said he’d prioritise Victor Osimhen over Kane to build for the future, do you agree?
DY: „Victor Osimhen does look like the real deal and Harry Kane is 29 years old, soon to be 30. But Robin van Persie was 29 years old when he joined Manchester United from Arsenal and look what happened. If Kane was over 30, then I’d probably say they should prioritise Osimhen, but at 29, Kane still has a couple of good years and he’ll want that elusive Premier League or major trophy. The problem is it’s never a two-year contract, it’s always at least four years. In terms of the next two years, I’d sign Kane, but after that is when it becomes a problem.“
Q: Do you think young players like Folarin Balogun give up too easily and should fight for a spot in a team
DY: „It’s a different generation now. Football was more like life or death a generation ago because it was your livelihood. To be a good player, earn a good wage, clean football boots and do apprenticeships. You had to earn the spot to be in the first team changing room, now it’s different. This generation is much softer, they are much more protected by the FA and the Football Players Association. Social media plays a big deal too, they have millions of followers which they earn money from. They’re making money from all different angles than just their club contracts. These young players like Folarin Balogun need to remember that without football, they would not be where they are now, and people can be disillusioned by them because they have 10 million followers. Football has made these players‘ lives a lot easier with the option of playing for different countries. If they had only one option, once you’re an Englishman you’re an Englishman, they would not be having these kinds of strops. As a manager like I am, you need to understand how to manage these situations.
“These players are young kids and some teenagers, you have to take that into consideration, if they were adults making those kinds of decisions then I’d be worried. Managers have to remember that just because his attitude isn’t right at the moment, it doesn’t make him a bad person overnight. These players are probably being advised or influenced poorly. Everyone made rash decisions when they were young. If I was Gareth Southgate, I would like to have a conversation with Folarin Balogun and understand why he’s made that decision, he should not shut the door on him just yet because he could be the next big thing. From a conversation, then you can find out if he has the right attitude or not to be in your team. We’ve seen players like Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah not have a good time with their managers and look at them now, Balogun could be the same.”
Q: Blackburn are looking to reach the play-offs and potentially make it into the Premier League, will it be good to see them back for the first time since 2012?
DY: “Blackburn Rovers won the Premier League in 1996, they will feel like they deserve to be back in the Premier League again. They’re going through a transitional period, Jon Dahl Tomasson is doing a great job there. The top six is a great chance to get promoted, it will be a straight shootout. As a manager there, they’ll want to sneak through the back door and build momentum on the way. That will be the mindset, they’ll give it their all and the teams they face won’t fancy playing against them.”
Q: Any fond memories of reuniting with Andy Cole?
DY: “Blackburn was a move when I was coming towards the end of my career because it was after I spent 10 years at Aston Villa and four years at Manchester United. I had a chance to join Middlesborough at the time, but because I saw Andy Cole have a good season and win the Carabao Cup, and Cole was my neighbour so he was telling me about the journey so we could travel together from Manchester, it was a no brainer. Although the success was not the same as it was at Manchester United because we were older and were not playing with the same calibre of players, we felt we could’ve had a good go again as a partnership.
„We had some good games against Manchester United and Celtic, they were classic football matches when you saw the old version of me and Cole enjoying our football, we had fun doing that. But we were not playing for a great manager at the time, Graeme Souness. Souness was a great player in his time, achieving all the great things in football, but as a manager, he was hard to work with, especially just after working with Sir Alex Ferguson so that was the only disappointment of joining Blackburn Rovers.”
