November 26 – Ooh Ah Cantona
TODAY it’s back to a time when instead of scrapping around in the third flight Leeds United were the English champions and their cross-Pennine rivals Manchester United were wondering if their twenty six year wait for a title was ever going to end. In one of the most significant transfers English football has seen in modern times, the mercurial French talisman Eric Cantona moved to Old Trafford today in 1992 for a bargain £1.2m.
When Cantona arrived at Elland Road in February 1992 he had been through seven clubs in a nomadic eight year period and had a reputation for being a tad ‘difficult’. Leeds’ manager Howard Wilkinson was a renowned disciplinarian and believed he could tame Cantona. For the first six months it was all fun and games, as Leeds won the title and made an encouraging start to the new season. Cantona in particular was in form, scoring a hat-trick in a 4-3 win over Liverpool in the Charity Shield and two weeks later he bagged the first ever treble in the newly formed Premier League as the champions cruised to a 5-0 win over Spurs.
When Sergeant Wilko dropped him for a game at QPR following a lacklustre performance in the European Cup the Frenchman was not impressed and emerged from a blazing row with Wilkinson with a transfer request in hand. There were also rumours flying around that Eric had been getting it on with strike-partner Lee Chapman’s wife, Leslie Ash, but these have been denied by those involved.
A few days later Leeds Chairman Bill Fotherby rang his Manchester United counterpart Martin Edwards to ask about the availability of Paul Parker. At the end of the conversation Edwards jokingly asked if they could take Cantona off their hands, and a £1.2m deal quickly went through.
When the word got out about the transfer Leeds fans were not impressed. Their team slumped to a seventeenth place finish and Cantona became the first player to win back-to-back titles with different clubs. Four titles in five years followed with Cantona as the catalyst for the most successful period in the club’s history, as Alex Ferguson kept his ego and temperament in check, with the exception of a bit of kung fu and some nonsense about seagulls and trawlers.
Leeds meanwhile, had to make do with signing Tomas Brolin and watching their biggest rivals hoover up trophies all over the place, with only themselves to blame. Check out some Gallic flair below and come back tomorrow for a fresh dose of footy history.
No related posts.
Loading ...
November 26 - Molby’s Pen-trick | On This Football Day on November 26th, 2008
[...] We don’t have any footage of the spot-kick fest against Coventry, but have a look at Liverpool taking on Leeds in 1993 when, you guessed it, Molby scored another penalty. We’ll be back tomorrow but to satisfy your football trivia thirst until then have a look at which mercurial Frenchman was switching clubs on this day in 1992. [...]