The Magnificent Sevens by Frank Worrall

Author:Frank Worrall [Frank Worrall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781843586975
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2011-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

9

Rebel with a Cause

‘I’m so proud the fans still sing my name, but I fear tomorrow they will stop. I fear it because I love it. And everything you love, you fear you will lose.’

ERIC CANTONA, 2004

‘I think the rest of us are painting by numbers.’

MARK HUGHES, 1993

Cantona would return to action for United on 1 October 1995. The king of drama, he would invariably return in a spotlight appropriate to his presence on the beautiful game’s stage. No small-time, behind-closed-doors comeback in the reserves for Cantona – no, he was propelled back into the front-line trenches by Ferguson, against Liverpool at Old Trafford.

United had started the season with a 3-1 loss at Aston Villa, a result that prompted the most famous clanger ever by TV pundit Alan Hansen. The former Liverpool centre-half-turned-Match of the Day-analyst brashly showed off his new ‘skills’ by dismissing a United shorn of the likes of Paul Ince, Andrei Kanchelskis and Mark Hughes – all shown the exit door in the closed season by Ferguson – and now reliant on a bunch of youngsters who had come through the Old Trafford academy ranks.

Midfielder Ince was sold to Inter Milan for £7.5 million; long-serving striker Hughes joined Chelsea for £1.5 million; and unsettled Russian winger Kanchelskis (United’s leading scorer the previous season) was sold to Everton for £5 million. Ferguson was heavily criticised for these sales, especially when they lost at Villa. Hansen led the chorus of doubters; he was not convinced that Paul Scholes, David Beckham, the Neville brothers, Lee Sharpe and Nicky Butt were up to it. Ferguson had made a mistake, he affirmed, getting rid of experience and giving youth a go.

What Hansen did not know – maybe he should have, given he was now a professional pundit – was the quality of the youngsters assembled before him. He certainly had not done his homework. That initial loss at Villa Park would be the only one ‘the kids’ would suffer in the Premiership until Eric’s return on 1 October. They won five and drew one of their top-flight encounters and, by the season’s end, Hansen’s words came back to haunt him as ‘Fergie’s Fledglings’ helped United overhaul Newcastle United’s ten-point lead at the top of the table.

Inevitably, Cantona was the star of the show on his return, scoring the late point-saver from the penalty spot after two goals from Robbie Fowler had cancelled out Nicky Butt’s second-minute opener. After his goal, he swung nonchalantly around the left-hand goal post, as if an actor taking his bow to a rapt audience. Cantona would become the conductor of the orchestra, the man behind the rise and rise of ‘the kids’. He would teach them by experience and nurture them. His positive influence on them is, I believe, one of the greatest and, surprisingly, little-heralded achievements of his reign.

Without Cantona, would ‘the kids’ have come on as quickly? I think not. I asked United fanatic Martin Creasy what he thought about the subject. He told me,

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