“When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea” (Eric Cantona, March 31st, 1995).

This has to be one the greatest lines EVER delivered by a footballer.  Eric Cantona, ‘The King’ of Manchester United who was a genius, leader and also apparent fish philosopher.  This Sky Sports documentary is a must see for any Manchester United fan. It marks the time when he returned to the team after that getting a lengthy ban for kung-fu kicking an an opposing abusive fan during a game once. Eric Cantona scoring loads of wonderful goals with the Stones Roses as the main background music, this ticked every box for me!

I have watched this documentary twice now in the last few days and the time flew by on the second occasion. It was twenty-five minutes in length but I got that engrossed in it that it only seemed to have been on for about five minutes before it ended the second time. It flowed brilliantly and did not get boring at any point.  Cantona was an enigma who had this wonderful maverick aura about him. I think this really came across well on the screen.

The documentary first starts off by chronicling Cantona’s move from Leeds United to Manchester United. Hearing from former Man United player Gary Pallister about how Eric was viewed and received by the rest of the squad at the time was really interesting and insightful.  With Cantona providing that touch of extra creativity and genius that the team needed, United went on to win their first league title in twenty-six years. Cantona was an instant hit at United. It was like this perennial nomad had finally found his spiritual and permanent home.

I loved the amusing anecdote told by former United great Steve Bruce about Cantona. It entailed Eric turning up at some team awards dinner in a pair of scruffy jeans, flip flops and some outlandish looking coat that resembled that highly colourful one from ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat’.  With the rest of the players all dressed up smartly in team blazers, Bruce apparently went up to Sir Alex Ferguson(the manager) and moaned about what Eric was wearing. I think the punchline from Ferguson was something like….”tell the rest of them that if they can play like he can, then next year they can can all come dressed up as Joseph”….funny!

The next section of the documentary then focused the now infamous, ‘Eric Cantona Kung-Fu kick’ incident. As the film had already highlighted and discussed, Cantona had this dark side to his personality.  When frustrated, this footballing genius was prone to lashing out and making awful challenges on opposing players.  United were playing a league game away at Crystal Palace.  The Palace defenders had kicked lumps out of Cantona all game. In frustration at this Cantona saw red and kicked out at Palace defender Richard Shaw. He duly got sent off for this and as he made his way from the pitch a Palace supporter ran down from the stands and hurled some obscenities at him.  Cantona then launched a ku-fung kick at this supporter followed by a punch.  A media feeding frenzy subsequently ensued.

The brilliant quote by Cantona at the top of this blog is to do with his original two-week prison sentence(for this kick), being altered to Community Service after an appeal.  I have researched what Cantona meant by this. Apparently, he was referring to the press following him around all of the time desperate for a story, the media feeding frenzy.  It made me chuckle in the documentary when Steve Bruce revealed what Cantona had said to him about that line.  Bruce asked him where he had got it from and Cantona replied something along the lines of…’yeah, not bad hey’?  I can remember it happening, the kick and that famous line, and not once did I feel anger towards Cantona at the time. In a way I respected him for standing up to such abuse from this idiot in the crowd. That said, it was wrong and he should not have done it.  I was just a bit aggrieved months later that his ban probably cost us the title that year.

After some brilliant work by Sir Alex Ferguson behinds the scenes, Eric Cantona ‘The King’ did finally play for Manchester United once again. His first game back was against United’s main arch rivals Liverpool. It was like he had never been away. He played a lovely ball into Ryan Giggs who was duly fouled and United were awarded a penalty. Cantona scored the spot kick to make the score 2-2 and Old Trafford exploded……..THE KING WAS WELL AND TRULY BACK!

The last section of the film showed Cantona back to his best. His presence lifted a Manchester United squad that now included the famous “Class of 92″(Butt,Scholes,Giggs, Beckham, Gary & Phil Neville).  Nicky Butt stated how Cantona coming back to the team, was like a ship having its captain back.  Cantona did not lead by his mouth, but rather by his confident demeanor and genius play.  It was clear just how much those young lads respected and looked up Eric.  Cantona’s return saw Manchester United win the league again and he scored a last minute winner in an FA Cup Final against Liverpool. Post-match, the documentary ends quite fittingly with Cantona walking away from an interview smiling and laughing.

To conclude then, I rate this documentary highly and it is an essential watch for all Man United fans out there.  Genius, leader and fish philosopher…………OH ERIC, YOU HAVE NO IDEA JUST HOW MUCH I MISS YOU!