A YEAR ON THE WEAR:CAMP NOU, Barcelona, May 26th, 1999, the witching hours before kick-off in the European Cup final. It is a time to be nervous, a time to be focused on the immediate future only. But not Dwight Yorke. Such is the clichéd image of the happy-go-lucky West Indian, Yorke might have been expected to be thinking about post-match antics if not the game itself, but instead, on reaching the stadium, Manchester United's centre forward lapsed into reflection. He took out his mobile phone and made a call of gratitude to Graham Taylor.

"I rang him to thank him for everything he'd done for me," Yorke recalled this week at Sunderland's training ground.

"It's no secret that he was the man who was responsible for me coming over to this country, he was the one who invited me and obviously helped me to make the grade. I'm very grateful to him for that. When I was at the height of my career, doing what we did at Man United, winning all those trophies, I always looked back and thought that if it wasn't for Graham Taylor giving me the opportunity I wouldn't have been there. Some people say that it was my doing, that if I wasn't committed and didn't do all the hard work, that it wouldn't have happened, but the reality is that I had to be given the opportunity. And the man who did that was Graham Taylor.

"I remember standing on the pitch before the final and I just couldn't stop thinking that I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. That's how I felt at the time, so I rang him up and told him so."

One small anecdote from a career 19 seasons long and it changes perceptions of Dwight Yorke. Standing in Sunderland's swish foyer, Yorke was thinking of Taylor again because today Yorke and Sunderland go back to Aston Villa. Yorke caused an angry stir when he left Villa for United, because he practically downed tools in a game at Goodison Park, leaving Villa little choice but to acquiesce to his desire to leave.

But on Wednesday Yorke spoke of Villa as "my team, the team I support. After Sunderland's results, I look out for theirs next."

His words were sincere, convincing and poignant because deep down Yorke thinks this could be the last time he plays at Villa Park. "If selected," he added with a laugh that acknowledged Roy Keane's unpredictability.

But Yorke seems likely to start. He is 36 now - "I may not have the fastest legs any more" - but he showed in his 17 minutes on the pitch against Chelsea last week that he can still pick a pass. Two for Kenwyne Jones should have brought at least one goal.

"It was good to see the impact he had against Chelsea," said Keane. "I need to see that in players. Players need to give you a lift. Yorkie gave me a lift when he came on. Sometimes there is a question mark about using Yorkie as a sub because he doesn't exactly kill himself when he's getting warmed up, so you're asking yourself these questions all the time.

"But I like Yorkie a lot. I think he's a good player and a good lad. He does things his way. He's laid-back - Alex Ferguson couldn't change him so I don't think I can change him. But you have to get your head around that and ask what is he bringing to the party? And Yorkie brings a lot to our dressingroom. If he plays on Saturday, hopefully he will get a good reception from the Villa fans. I know he left there under a cloud but they got him for nothing and then were paid £12.6 million, which isn't bad.

"It was great for me that I knew he wanted to come back from Australia, where I knew he was very happy. You can just picture Yorkie over there, I was thinking: 'would he ever come back here?' He did, because Yorkie loves his football, knows his football. He's doing his coaching badges, he will make a good coach."

The chance to go to Sydney to play into retirement came three years ago. Yorke had been at Birmingham City - interesting for a Villa fan - after two years at Blackburn Rovers followed Old Trafford. In four sweet seasons under Ferguson, and alongside Keane, Yorke won three Premier League titles, one FA Cup and the European Cup in Barcelona that prompted the call to Taylor.

Yorke's pedigree is something different at Sunderland.

"I've been blessed," he said. "I've achieved the majority of things in the game. This with Sunderland is just a different challenge. I've never really been in this situation before, except once at Villa under Brian Little. I've never really come across this before, I've always been on the up.

"This is a different ball game. We need everything we can possibly get and the most important thing for me is that we have a team here and players who are committed to the cause. That will take you a long way. We have given ourselves a good fighting chance in terms of survival.

"But the reality is the history of this club and you've got to take things like that into account. This is a team that comes up and goes straight back down, pretty much. It very rarely stays up. The last good times they had were when Peter Reid was here. History shows that this club goes down."

Yorke helped create history in that United treble season; now he needs to change its modern variety at Sunderland. Or he and English football could be history.

"This might be the moment when I make my last visit to the stadium where I started my career. That'll be in the back of my mind. I've got my family and all my close friends there; it will be an emotional day. My newborn son will make his appearance for the first time. I have all that to deal with, but it's a great feeling to have. I'll be fine."