By NEIL CUSTIS
DWIGHT YORKE will never forget the night when Alex Ferguson became like a kid at Christmas.
It was in the dressing room of the Nou Camp after that stunning Champions League triumph over Bayern Munich in 1999.
And, while Yorke was ready for the players to party, he was not quite expecting what he saw from the manager.
The former striker said: “It was incredible in that dressing room, he was like a kid.
“He was running around, jumping on people, drinking champagne.
“He doesn’t let his guard down often but that night was something different.
“For him he had achieved the ultimate — the Treble — and got us that European Cup. It was like a mixture of joy, satisfaction and relief all coming out in one.
“To see him like that will always stay in my mind.”
It was the culmination of an incredible season in which Yorke top scored with 29 goals as Manchester United swept all before them, winning the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League.
He had been the new signing that summer to propel the club forward after the disappointment of a potless previous season.
And it was before the very first league away game of that incredible 1998-99 season that Yorke realised he was in the presence of a very special manager. They were playing at West Ham where United always got a particularly hostile reception.
Yorke said: “I’ll never forget it. It was just before we went out and he said: ‘Do not forget who you are representing and what this football club is all about. Do not let them intimidate you.
‘The reason you are representing the best football club in the world is because you are better than them, you are the best in the world’. It was an incredible speech I suddenly felt 10ft tall.”
It was words like that which carried the players through the greatest season in the club’s history. Yorke added: “He just gave you so much belief and confidence. The closer we got to winning the Treble the more he made us realise what we were on the brink of doing.
“That we could make history, that we should not let this opportunity pass.
“He made us give our all every time we went out on the football pitch.
“I remember at half-time in the Nou Camp when things were not going well. He told us that if we didn’t grasp this opportunity we would be walking past that famous trophy and not be able to touch it.
“None of us wanted that, we couldn’t let it happen and we didn’t.
“It was the drive and belief he gave us that made sure it didn’t.”
It is a fascinating insight from one of the many players who credits Ferguson for being one of the central figures in their lives.
Yorke scored 66 goals in 152 appearances in four years at United before Fergie sold him on in the saddest moment of the striker’s career.
He said: “I remember him calling me into the office and telling me that he felt it was best for the football club that I moved on.
“Obviously I was devastated. But then he said to me: ‘This club will never forget what you have done for it and the door here will always be open to you’.”
Yorke believes what Ferguson has achieved will resonate through generations and football is saying goodbye to a man who will never be equalled.
The former Trinidad star said: “He has left a legacy that will continue for a very long time. There will never be anyone like him.
“Him retiring is a loss not just to Manchester United but to world football because I genuinely believe there has never been anyone like him in the game as a whole.
“He has not just been the best manager in the Premier League but the best manager in the world.
“The gaffa is the sort of person you would just want as a dad. I might have been gone from United for over a decade now but the door has genuinely always been open to me and still is.
“Over recent years he has let me return to train and do my coaching badges.
“And I have still been able to go to him for advice about very personal things as well.
“I will never forget what he has done for me.”
