KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Former Aston Villa and Manchester United player Dwight Yorke believes he is the right man to manage a team in the English Premier League (EPL).
However, the Trinidadian has bemoaned the fact that while managers in the EPL were continually being recycled, new persons were not being given the opportunities to prove they were competent managers.
“I think I made my intentions clear… I am now 46 years of age and I feel that it’s a good time to get into management. I feel like I have got my mojo back so to speak, where football is concerned.
“I feel that it’s been a football merry-go-round when you look at the Premier League, [as] it’s the same managers who are getting the sack and coming round and all that and I feel that there is a young generation bursting to get in there, let alone black managers,” Yorke said.
Yorke scored 123 goals in the EPL, which was a record for a non-European until Sergio Agüero broke it in 2017.
He represented Trinidad and Tobago at the World Cup in Germany in 2006 and also served as assistant manager of the Trinidad and Tobago national team.
Yorke said it was especially hard for black managers to get into the EPL.
“Truth be told, there are 92 football league teams in England [and] there are only two, possibly three black managers. And when you think of the number of black players that have represented in the Premier League…I know for a fact that there are black players out there wanting to be managers, but it’s the lack of opportunity. So that in itself is another challenge,” he said.
“I have made it clear that I want to be a manager, I want to be given an opportunity to manage. I have put in my CV (curriculum vitae) for the Aston Villa job, also for the Sunderland job, and got very little in return for doing that. So I know that there are challenges, but I feel that I am ready to do it and by doing that I need an opportunity.”
