Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole defined an entire era of dominance for Manchester United, as Gary Neville recalled on MNF Retro...
The club's treble win during the 1998/99 season shines bright as the standout success of Sir Alex Ferguson's reign at Old Trafford, but that campaign could have panned out very differently.
That summer, AC Milan striker Patrick Kluivert was heavily linked as Ferguson looked to respond to Arsenal's double-winning season.
It was not until October 1998 when the Scot's hand was forced during a Premier League encounter against Southampton. Teddy Sheringham or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer were both deemed not fit enough to start.
Cole and Yorke subsequently both scored in a 3-0 win. The rest, as they say, is history...
'They lit up the whole league, they lit up Europe'
Gary Neville told MNF Retro: "When I first came into the Manchester United team, it was Eric Cantona and Mark Hughes, and during this period it was Yorke and Cole, with Teddy [Sheringham] and Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] as well as strike partners.
"Then it went onto Ruud [van Nistelrooy] who played sometimes with Scholesy [Paul Scholes] and sometimes with one of the other lads I just mentioned.
"Then it went on to Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney, who were absolutely sensational as well.
"I would probably say Yorke and Cole, just for that Treble season where they were absolutely sensational, the way they would play together. They lit up the whole league, they lit up Europe.
"I always remember a group stage game in the Champions League in Barcelona when the two played together. I've never seen anything like it.
"We conceded three goals, I was centre-back, but we scored three. Those two that night were absolutely brilliant."
'Cole was the most difficult to play against'
Jamie Carragher enjoyed several battles down the years with both Yorke and Cole during his time at Liverpool.
Yorke scored twice against the Reds during the 1998/99 season while the Sky Sports pundit was featuring for Gerard Houllier's side.
When asked who he found harder to defend against, Carragher told MNF Retro: "I always felt Andy Cole was the most difficult to play against. Dwight Yorke I felt was the best player.
"In terms of which player caused me more problems, Yorke was always in front of me, whereas Cole was always looking to run in behind. You could never relax in the game.
"They had a brilliant partnership."
When Yorke signed for United from Aston Villa in the summer of 1998, Sir Alex Ferguson already had Cole, Sheringham and Solskjaer on his books - but he was keen to sign a different type of centre-forward.
John Gregory had no intention of selling the Trinidad & Tobago international and after being told that his star man wanted to head for Old Trafford, the Villa boss is famously quoted as saying: "If I had a gun, I would have shot him."
So what were United's reasons for paying a club-record fee of £12.6m to convince Villa to sell their main asset?
"When Yorkey signed, it was late on in the transfer window," Neville added. "The season had already started, and it was a surprise in some ways. It came out of nowhere.
"Obviously, we knew Dwight Yorke from Aston Villa and he was a good player. You just didn't think he was the one that was coming to United. What we didn't realise was just how good he was.
"I don't know what the plan was, because I don't think him and Cole really hit it off to start with. It took maybe 10 or 15 games for them to get together, and then all of a sudden [it changed]."
In January 1999, Yorke's hat-trick and Cole's double helped United to a 6-2 win over Leicester at Filbert Street. Neville views the encounter as a turning point in the partnership.
"That game sticks in my mind," he said. "It was a league game where they both played together and something just happened that day. They starting socialising together and started getting on with each other off the pitch.
"There was a respect between each other. The thing about those two, they didn't mind which of them scored which is quite unique sometimes. Cole was a goalscorer, and you often find they need to score in order to be happy.
"But they got to the point when they didn't care if either of them scored, they'd both be happy with each other."
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