Duked Out: An End to Yorke’s Club Dilettantism

Finally.

Dwight Yorke will spend the next few months training with Man U, to ensure his fitness for the Warriors’ games in June. In the meanwhile, his club, Sydney FC, will continue to pay his wages.

It must be good to be Duke. The Trinidad Guardian has the story, extracted below.

SOCA WARRIORS World Cup captain Dwight Yorke will leave New Zealand tomorrow to join his former club Manchester United for training ahead of this country’s 2006 World Cup campaign.

The Tobago-born striker has also accepted responsibility for the lack of understanding with Sydney FC surrounding his move from the club.

Initially Yorke was interested in joining a new club on loan as the Australian season closed last week but with reports circulating about his switch, Sydney FC then issued a statement saying they were okay with releasing him which led to reports indicating that Yorke felt he was being unfairly rejected by the club .

But now the former Aston Villa star has cleared the air on the matter which had raised eyebrows this week.

“I’ve spoken with the chairman and he has reassured me that there was a breakdown in communications and the intention was never to get rid of me,” Yorke said.

“I accept that and, as I’ve said before, I’m more than happy to stay in Sydney. I’m happy here and I want to help the team build on its success. I have never entertained the idea of moving on at any time.”

Sydney director Peter Turnbull told the Daily Telegraph “Dwight’s staying. It was never our intention to force him to move anywhere. “The situation has been sorted out and now we can move on. We feel we’ve been fair with Dwight. All that was said was that Dwight could go if he wanted to because we knew that he was going back to England anyway to prepare for the World Cup and might receive a better offer.

“It was out of respect for him just giving him a option if somebody came in with the sort of money we couldn’t match. We’ve been very accommodating to Dwight and will be paying his wages for the next four months ($400,000) while he trains with another club. You can’t do more than that.”