“The papers were asking, ‘Is he mad? Is he
crazy?’ We did ask him what it was all about,
and to this day, I still remember his reply. He
said, ‘I don’t know where it came from, but it
was fking good, wasn’t it?’”
Aimed at the media flock who’d followed
his every move since that Selhurst flare-up,
the Frenchman had written his line on a piece
of paper beforehand after asking the club’s
baffled head of security what the correct
English words were for a fishing boat and
the small fish in the sea.
“Hundreds of journalists were there, and
the club’s lawyer wanted me to say
something,” Cantona recently explained,
launching his new travel brand, Looking FC.
“I didn’t want to say anything, but he said,
‘You have to’. I just said what came to mind.
I could have said ‘the sky is blue’ or ‘I saw
a lion flying’. But I said that and left.
“I think the journalists were happy, and
I was very happy because they all tried to
understand what I’d said. They’d treated me
like I was a criminal – I never killed anybody.
Thousands of times, I’d heard fans say things
and never reacted. This time I reacted – I’m
not a robot, and I never wanted to be a robot.
Sometimes I’m good, sometimes I’m bad.
Sometimes I’m sweet, sometimes I’m st.”
There was never any chance of his United
team-mates ribbing him for his ostentatious
quotes, though.
“No one took the mick out of him, ever,”
Bruce says. “Not because we were scared of
him, but because he had the respect of the
dressing room. He’d earned that with his
performances on the pitch.”
Cantona had also earned the affection
of his manager, who’d already settled on
a sensitive man-management style for the
team’s biggest star. Ferguson had previously
enjoyed several conversations with Guy Roux
about him, even visiting Cantona’s mentor at
Auxerre to glean information.
On the night of the kung-fu kick, the
United boss directed his post-match
hairdryers to Cantona’s team-mates for
letting a 1-0 lead slip, rather than balling out
the Frenchman.
“The boss came into the dressing room
and was fuming,” Lee Sharpe said. “We look
at each other, thinking, ‘F**king hell, Cantona
is getting it here!’ He says, ‘Incey, where the
f**k have you been? Sharpey, my
grandmother runs f**king faster than you!
You’re all a f**king disgrace. Nine o’clock
tomorrow morning, I’m going to run your
f**king balls off in training. F**king shocking.
And Eric... you can’t go round doing things like
that, son’.”
United moved quickly to suspend Cantona
for the rest of the season, hoping it would be
enough to prevent further punishment from
the FA. It wasn’t: Cantona was banned foreight months. Jacquet also stripped him of
the national team captaincy – after 20 goals
from 45 caps, he never played for France
again, his lengthy absence allowing Zinedine
Zidane to emerge as Les Bleus’ new star.
Without Cantona, United were pipped to the
title by Blackburn in 1994–95, before their
star man vowed to quit English football when
the FA announced that they were
investigating a behind-closed-doors friendly
match against Rochdale, believing it may
have contravened his ban. United insisted it
was only a training game, but Cantona went
AWOL, feeling the FA were being unfair.
Inter were interested in taking him to Serie
A, but he agreed to return to Manchester
after the FA relented and Ferguson dashed
to Paris to track him down, riding around the
streets on the back of a Harley-Davidson with
Cantona’s lawyer.
On 1 October 1995, Cantona made his
much-anticipated return, setting up Nicky
Butt, then converting a penalty in a 2-2 draw
with Liverpool. “It was a long eight months
for Eric – it was written in the stars that he’d
score when he came back,” Bruce smiles.FAREWELL, FEATURING RICHARD KEYS
With Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei
Kanchelskis all sold that summer, a young
United side had famously lost the openingAbove From
panto villain to
kung-fu assassin- the ten
seconds that
created his
United legend
ERIC
CAn TOn AFourFourTwo.com The Story of Man Utd 71