Totally Extra: Cantona - the first Premier League superstar

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1:55How would he fare now? And what did he mean about those sardines? We're going in two-footed on a Premier League legend in this Totally Extra.

2:13It's Saturday the 9th of May, although not yet for us as we record this, but hey, clustered like seabirds behind a fishing vessel. Am I sounding clever yet? Here in the studio, we have Duncan Alexander of The Athletic. Hello, James. Nice to see you, Duncan. Canal Plus' token Welshman, Tom Williams. Hello, James. Bonjour. Author of the definitive tome about French people playing football, possibly also the only one, va-va-voom. Yeah, it's a less than crowded marketplace. Nice. No one else is going to try now, are they? Hopefully not. And also with us, the author of 250 Days, Cantonese Kung Fu and the Making of Man U, a.k.a.

2:59Daniel Story of the Eye. Hi, Daniel. Hello, James. Are you well? I'm very well, thank you. All the better for having read your book. Actually, I better not say that because it's going to beg the question, have I read yours, Tom? Well, more to the point. More to the point. Oh, also, we've got a surprise guest coming up very shortly, Although it's possibly not a surprise because it's been in the write-up, I should think. Anyway, here's a post. I'm younger than 30 and in no way a made-up listener. I'm key to understand more about Eric Cantona. I'm too young to have seen him play, although I've caught the Sunderland goal, the Kung Fu kick, and had the quotes repeated endlessly.

3:37So I know he's a legend, but how good was he? Well, my younger than 30 and in no way fictitious correspondent, that's the question we're going to be addressing today. Woof. Do you want to give an early verdict? Tom, for example, what do they say in France about Cantona? Is he one of les plus grands? He isn't, no. There is a different perception of him in France to the perception of him in England. He had to leave France. He'd kind of run out of road in France. Thanks, Duncan, as the enfant terrible or terrible child. And one of the unfortunate things for Cantona was that he had his moment in the sun at Manchester United right before France won their first World Cup.

4:29And so consequently has been eclipsed by that generation of players in franchise. so I mean I think in France there's an awareness of his unique stature in English football and particularly in the eyes of Majesty United fans but they didn't ever see it themselves on home soil or they did see it but very fleetingly like Norman Wisdom in Albania like people know that they were a big figure there respect his body of work but don't that was a tribute to Norman Wisdom just popped in, dropped a microphone on the table Yeah, they're very similar There are those who would call Cantona the single player who best represents English football's rapid transformation from the working class kick and rush game of Division I a sport that had largely remained the same for half a century to the glamour and exoticism of the current Premier League and as such, Daniel, for it is he possibly the most influential player of the last two decades three decades yeah I think influence is the right term the output was there and the natural talent was phenomenal and something that I think's overlooked the dedication to his craft and training was also there and I think what Cantona does probably more than anyone else at that time is bring together all of those elements so you know before Wenger's Arsenal he was obsessed with nutrition before, you know, at the same time as other foreign players were rushing in, he kind of represented that, you know, collar up, like arrogant swagger, like other worldliness of foreign footballers in England, I think, in terms of, as I'm sure we're going to talk about, his influence on the wannabe biggest club in the land at that point and the successful journey of that club to the pinnacle was like nothing else and he was also a really really talented footballer who had match defining and season defining moments so I think it's the way he sort of brings all that in at a time when English football was very much a sponge for players doing that you were able to it felt like you were able to make a bigger difference there were fewer shoulders to stand on I think at the time to make yourself a giant of the game.

6:50It's a bit of a niche point, but if we're talking about the Premier League in its nascent years as a moment where football crossed from being this sort of semi-hated thing of the 80s to part of popular culture, Cantona always reminds me of Egg on This Life, which was a popular series in the 1990s, who was a Manchester United fan and went on about Cantona all the time. And it kind of was a moment where suddenly talking about footballers, especially cool ones like Eric Cantona was a sort of like a passport to credibility for yourself How many footballers have had Ken Loach make an entire bloody film about them?

7:27Well indeed, not many No doubt about it, Cantona certainly entered the public domain never more so than that night at Selhurst Park of course physically and in a very real sense but we'll get on to all of that in the course of today's show Duncan, why don't you give us a Cantona quiz question? All right, yeah, why not? As we will discuss, I'm sure, first Frenchman to score in the Premier League back on the 22nd of August 1992 for Leeds against Middlesbrough. I can see it in my mind. For the older listener, who was the second Frenchman to score in the Premier League? And for the younger listener, who were the last two Frenchmen to score their first goal in the Premier League?

8:12As of May the 9th, 2026. Yes. The two most recent French scorers. Yes, and the second oldest French scorer. The next one to do it after Cantona. Yeah, and I can tell you it was in the... It's fiendish. It was quite a while later. Because when was the next Frenchman to actually play in? There wasn't another Frenchman at the time, at the first season in. No, he was the only Frenchman. You should know this, Tom, with your French book thing. Yeah, hopefully I do. All right. Well, you're being very kind and giving the rest of us a chance. So we'll respect that. By all means, write it on a piece of paper.

8:49And we'll come back. I'll ask you a playing card, James. And at the end of the show, I'll ask you to open one of those books behind you. And you'll realise that I've written down Sylvain Distan and got it wrong by 15 years. Something to look forward to for us all. One of the many things. Anyway, next up, before we get into the Cantona business, it's this week in football history. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, part of the Athletic FC Podcast Network.

9:18Listen, what has this week in football brought us through the years? Plenty, thanks. The 5th of May 1956 saw Manchester City goalkeeper Bert Troutman play in the FA Cup final and get a brace for his neck, which he broke. incredible story he broke his neck in the cup final and he kept playing it's very awkward if you look at the photos after that cup final because he sort of he stood with his head like lent on his shoulder and it's like yeah it doesn't make you feel good no man city beat birmingham 3-1 his neck brace from that match was probably still is on display in the very excellent Museum of Football in Vienna, Austria.

10:02If you're in Vienna and have a hankering for some football history, I urge you to get along there. But I would posit that that incident caused more problems for children of later generations in England than any other because my dad would frequently say when someone went down injured during a game, well, they're not exactly Bert Troutman, are they? The idea that if you hadn't broken your neck, you shouldn't complain about any injury. Run it off. And you might be forgiven for thinking, oh, I suspect that at that incident ushered in a new era of respect for goalkeepers and the need to protect them.

10:34But no, because two years later, at the very same stadium, in the same match, Bolton Wanderers won the FA Cup by Nat Lofthouse bundling the Manchester United goalkeeper into the net when he had the ball in both hands. You're kidding. A dangerous profession, goalkeeper in the late 1950s. The goalkeeper had the ball in his hands, a sizable leather affair, I'm sure, and Nat Lofthouse literally just clattered him into the net and was awarded a goal for that. Barged him into the net, yeah. I remember my dad telling me about this when I was a kid and we were playing football in the garden and occasionally I would field one of my dad's shots and think, I've done quite well here.

11:08And then he would announce, not loft house, and just kind of run in and bundle me over the line. What wrong-thinking football bit of heritage did your father run at you, Daniel? My big football reference in the garden was playing with one of those air balls and therefore being able to create the Roberto Carlos-style free kicks where the ball bent the wrong way. That was always the big one in Argonne. And actually, years ahead of my time, because the advice used to be to kick the valve, which Cristiano Ronaldo famously did years and years after me. OK, there you go. 5th of May 1996, a little bit more Man City history.

11:50They were relegated, relegated after drawing with Liverpool. tragically they were under the impression that a point would keep them up and with us trying to run the clock down when they discovered too late that they actually needed a win Niall can you sum up how the City players are just feeling at the moment well I mean it's just like a cloud has come over the club it'll take a lot to get anything back at this club I mean it's terrible in there at the moment I mean just said to one or two people already I mean when you start your football career nobody ever prepares you for a day like this. Another 5th of May 2014.

12:30Cristambool, which is kind of Man City related because it was because of City's superior goal difference that Liverpool, post that slip against Chelsea, were desperately trying to score loads of goals at Serhers Park. It didn't work out well for them. It's really in their desire to pick up what will be a remarkable point. And here's Gale who can get it. 3-3 from 3-0 down. Two of them to Dwight Gale. It's an amazing night at Salhurst Park. Liverpool have caved in. 7th May 2006 was Lasagna Gate when Spurs and Arsenal were in a race for the top four and Spurs went down with food poisoning. So Arsenal, in their last game ever at Highbury, earned top four status.

13:19It was very Henry Hattrick against Wigan, wasn't it? In the red current kit. Whatever Thierry Henry achieves, his name will be forever associated with Highbury. And on the last day here, he has a hat-trick. The king of Highbury. Lasagna really dates it, doesn't it? The idea that professional footballers would be tucking into lasagna. Well, I don't think it was immediately before the game. No, I know, but even these days, pasta is poo-poo. Is it? Really? Oh yeah, big time, yeah. This new learning amazes me, Duncan. James has a lasagna before every pod, Duncan. I have an apple. I'm famous for it.

14:03But I was under the impression that sports people still enjoyed to load up on carbs. You need carbs, but pasta's not good. You want rice much better. So it could be a chilli con carne gate these days. Right. The world's changed. We live in the era of marginal grains, ladies and gentlemen. And the 8th of May 2013 Sir Alex Ferguson announced his retirement After, again, after 26 years At Manchester United Best signing he made in those 26 years Very possibly the subject of today's show He's been one of the best players in the last three decades To grace our football field Cantona! Oh yeah! Cantona, it's free, kicks has seen it, he's found it, and now looks for the chip!

14:57Oh, it's squintedly done! The number of Eric is, it's sense of occasion, scoring vital goals. Most of the number of goals is scoring a 1-1 now. He's away. Now what's he gonna do? There is your answer! What I used to love about Eric, when he showed for it, he showed for it properly. Some strikers show for it, but they're like, I'm showing, but don't give it to me, I don't want it in tight areas. whereas Eric had the presence, the confidence, the personality, particularly at Old Trafford, when you might be under pressure, he'd say, yeah, give it to me. I'll deal with it. This is Solskjaer to Cantona.

15:30Oh, the way he brought that down was fabulous. Cantona. Oh! Magnificent. I'm not a man. I am Cantona. Looking for Eric there from Ken Loach. All right, so what was Cantona? What is a Cantona? still a United legend all these decades later, and a cross-cultural figure, possibly the most influential player, says Daniel, that the Premier League has ever seen. He retired by the age of 30, but had already packed a remarkable career into that brief time. Tom, he was born in Marseille, began his career at Auxerre, but rapidly became so much of an enfant terrible in France that effectively he had to leave the country to become successful.

16:19Just how much trouble had he got into in France? Enormous trouble. And for all manner of different things, likening the national team coach to a bag of s*** in a TV interview, various on-pitch meltdowns, hip-high challenges on opposing players. That was extraordinary. Lobbing footballs at referees. Not lobbing, he hurls it. And then he tries to kick the ball at him. And then tries to kick the ball at him. So that story, OK, so the first real ban was the assault, you'd have to call it, on Michel de Zakarian from Nantes. That was when he was at Auxerre. En avril 88 déjà, Cantona s 'était fait remarquer.

16:59Il portait alors le maillot de l 'Agi Auxerre et avait tacklé plus que sévèrement le Nantais d 'Air Zakarian, un geste qui lui avait valu alors trois matchs de suspension. he then goes to Marseille gets into loads of trouble gets loaned out to Montpellier where he wins the Coupe de France with a side that included Laurent Blanc and Carlos Valderrama but that came after a period when he spent 10 days away from the training ground for throwing his boots in a teammate's face yes as you do cantonar cantonar actually just to go back to the infamous quote about Henri Michel being a bag of s*** and sack of merde if you watch the clip He doesn't actually say that directly.

17:43He's paraphrasing Mickey Rourke. Mickey Rourke, I think, had been overlooked for an Oscar and had said something like, well, the people who pick these are, you know, a bag of s*** or something. And Cantona was asked about the fact he'd been overlooked by Henri Michel, then the France coach, and was complaining about the fact that he hadn't even been told. You know, he felt like he'd been treated very shabbily and was sort of prompted for more of a response by the interviewer. And he said, oh, I saw something that Mickey Rourke said recently, and I'm a big fan of his. He said something like, you know, the people who pick the Oscars, they're a bag of ****.

18:14Right. For me, Henri Michel, he's not all that far away from that. OK. I mean, obviously, a pretty disgraceful thing to say, to even suggest that the national team coach is in any way similar to a bag of ****. But for the record, didn't actually say that he was a bag of ****. Huh. Well, nicely qualified on that. Not sure there's much you can do about the hurling the ball at the referee incident, for which he received a one-month ban. But at the disciplinary hearing, where he heard his sentence, it responded by walking up to each one of the members of the committee and calling them an idiot one by one, at which point they increased his ban to two months.

18:51He then announced his retirement from football at the age of just 25 and was talked round by, well, opinions very. Was it Gerard Houllier? Was it Michel Platani? So Michel Platini had succeeded Henri Michel as France coach and wanted Cantona in his team, but could see that he was just lurching from controversy to controversy in France. So he mandated Gerard Houllier, who was his assistant at the time, to try and find him a club in England. And that's what set him... Former schoolteacher in Liverpool, Gerard Houllier. Former Liverpool schoolteacher, Gerard Houllier. That's what set Cantona on the path towards England.

19:29It was this feeling that he'd run out of road in France. But just very briefly on his time at Marseille, this was a time when Bernard Tapie had just taken charge at Marseille, was throwing loads of money at the club, and they were on this very steep upward trajectory. And Cantona wasn't all that far away from being part of that. He'd had these loans, but the beginning of the 1990-91 season, Marseille had just appointed Franz Beckenbauer as general manager. He put Cantona in the team. Cantona scores eight goals in the first 16 matches alongside Jean-Pierre Papin, is flying, then gets injured. And by the time he comes back from injury, Raymond Gertel's very eccentric, chain-smoking old Belgian coach had taken over.

20:14He was playing with a single striker formation, so Papin was on his own up front. No place in the team for Cantona. And there was this supposed exchange between the two of them. And Cantona said something to Gertel after being told he was going to be a substitute for a European Cup game against AC Milan, Canto doesn't sit on the bench. And Gürtel said to him, well, in that case, just grab a chair and you can sit next to it. And then just kind of cracked on with his team talk. So Marseille reached the European Cup final in 91, Auston penalties to Red Star Belgrade in Barry. But Cantona was a footnote to the whole thing, pretty much.

20:48All right. Daniel, you were reading a book through all of that. Were you bored or looking something up? I was looking up, yeah, Yeah, in the book that I wrote about Cantona, I was just trying to remember the notion. It felt, I mean, I was very young, but even when Cantona came to England, I think sometimes at that point, we managed to park the previous reputation of players. But that reputation in France of Cantona was known when he came to England. It was seen as a risk by, I mean, he went on trial at Sheffield Wednesday and was signed eventually by Leeds. And it was seen as a risk by Howard Wilkinson to have him in that team.

21:28So it wasn't as if people weren't aware of it. It was a huge gamble being taken by even bringing him to England. Because as Duncan says at the top of the show, the reputation of English football was as this kind of slightly violent sport, which was mistrusted by those in positions of authority. Now, that was all about fan behaviour more than player behaviour. But it's sort of a bold call to then bring over a player who's disrespected authority and effectively behaved like quite a bad child as the kind of leading, you know, one of the leading signings in the league that season. But also this is a time, and younger listeners may not remember, but like clubs would do this thing of like getting players on trial mid-season.

22:11Like Liverpool did it with Ronnie Rosenthal when they were just looking. You just get a player on trial for a bit and go, well, yeah, they're all right. We might sign them. And there's a lovely clip from St. McGreevesy when Cantona, or as they pronounce them throughout the clip, Cantona, which is quite disconcerting, Eric Cantona. But again, there he shows what Tom was saying. He kind of bemoans the fact that Trevor Francis and Sheffield Wednesday had agreed to sign him and then made him do another trial match. He just told them to, I don't know what he called them, what he said they were a bag full of.

22:44but he obviously pitched up at Leeds pretty soon after. And the one clip of him in his Sheffield Wednesday shirt is so incongruous, playing in an indoor trial game in trainers, with the ball kind of bouncing around at shoulder height the whole time. One of those yellow balls he got in sports centres. Yeah, and that was as close as he got to becoming a Sheffield Wednesday player. When you think about what was to come, it is a very peculiar little interlude in his career. I just think we could have had Cantona and Maradona in a Sheffield derby Had, you know, the world been different Anyway, we're stuck with one in which instead he suited up for Leeds In the 91-92 season with whom he won the title Whilst at the same time falling out sufficiently with Howard Wilkinson That despite the following season, the start of the Premier League Beginning with a hat-trick in the charity shield And then scoring the Premier League's first ever hat-trick and a front row seat for a French lesson in goal scoring from Cantona on Tuesday.

23:46Numéro trois coming up. Two match balls claimed in the space of 17 days. Relations were sufficiently chilled that one day in November, the phone rings and it's Leeds United on the line. Eh, Daniel? Yeah, and Ferguson has had interest in Cantona before this point. He was searching for a game-changing player, a mentor for his team. He'd heard how, although Cantona's behaviour on the pitch and sometimes off it was pretty loose, his commitment to training was fantastical and he believed he could shape Cantona. He had a figure in mind that he would have gone to for Cantona or he would have persuaded the club to go to.

24:28And the amount that is pitched for him is less than that fee. So Ferguson cannot believe his luck and says, yes, please, straight away. And the deal's done. And United at the time, Daniel, eighth on the table, already out of two cup competitions. They'd only won two of their previous 13 games. Their big summer signing, Dion Dublin, had broken his leg. They needed something urgently. Yeah, and it's not that long after Ferguson was under severe pressure for his own job. I mean, we all know about that story and Mark Robbins at all, but it was still fresh in the mind. And Ferguson also, history tells us, understood more than anyone else or certainly more than any other manager that the restart of English football, which was, you know, the Premier League's launch, was a real opportunity for a new club to stand up and dominate, both on the pitch and more importantly, commercially.

25:23and so Ferguson was way ahead of his time on that and predicted that if someone could steal a march then they could hang around for a long time now the one plus one equals two of Cantona joining and that happening is not you know it's no straight line it's no simple sum but that was what Ferguson had in mind I don't think he saw it happening quite as quickly and quite as spectacularly but yeah that was the plan

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27:41This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Oli Kay and the very best football writers around. United hadn't won a league title for 25 years. Cantona pitched up in November. They won the title that year. They won the title the following year. The following year, 94-95, not so much. the ban Cantona returns they win that title and they win the title after that and then Cantona retires one man who was right there on the day that King Eric first walked in to survey his new kingdom in Manchester was the then Red Devils midfielder Paul Ince who was also alongside him in the thick of things two years later at Selhurst Park more on that subject later on but Paul spoke to us a short time ago today and shared his thoughts on the man And he still calls King Eric.

28:40When he walked through that door, there was this presence about him. It was like he'd been there for five, six years. It was like that he belonged there. It was like that he'd arrived and he said, this is where I should be. You know, this is my theatre. Big man, chest out. I didn't talk a lot. Was very, very quiet. You know, he didn't really say a lot. but you know when he got in that field the first the first 20 minutes of the training session his touch was impeccable everything about him was impeccable he dressed his hair he's touched the way he trained and now we knew within 20 minutes that he was he was probably the final piece of our jigsaw he just kind of gave us that kind of changing mentality i'll tell you a little story we used to probably train about half past 10 every morning so the lads used to bowling for breakfast just about half nine.

29:34Every time we used to get there at half nine, Eric Cantona was out on the training ground already. All went up, kicking balls up the air, doing all the skills, all the touches every day. You know, just took it on his own back to do it every day. And then they join up with the lads at half ten and let's do it again. And I thought, wow. The way he kind of approached his training, he took it really seriously, his training. You know, sometimes you get players, you start f***ing about in training. You know what I mean? He used to hate that. You know, you train properly. And then that's what it was.

30:07But when it came to game time, you always felt that you were going to win. When it was a one-on-one with Caneson against a goalkeeper, we just turned back and all back to the halfway line because we know we'd always score. And just important moments at times where we needed to win games to win the title. You know, and he could deal with pressure. He loved the ball at his feet. He was powerful. He was strong. He had all the attributes of a great, great player. and as a guy, he was a lovely, lovely guy. Not many people got to know him a lot because he was quite, I mean, he lived in a hotel up near Worsley where Ryan Giggs used to live and because me and Giggs were best mates, we used to pop in and say hello.

30:45So we kind of had a really good relationship and he was funny, but as a footballer, you know, he was a genius. If he was playing in the Premier League of today with the level of kind of global superstardom that squads are able to deploy, do you think he would still stand so tall above kind of the rest of the league you know it's funny enough I was thinking about this last night when I was in bed Jimbo and um I wasn't thinking about you I was thinking about a kind of an old question and I was saying to myself when you look at people like Verts at Liverpool going for 100 million pounds I know he doesn't I know he doesn't decide the price but if that's the game rate for someone like that then you're looking at can to not be into 100 million pound you really really are um and he could he could play in any any any generation anytime because he just had all the all the attributes you need to plan it technically he was very very very good he was powerful he could score goals he was quick he was deceptively quick obviously i'm not sure he can get away with the tackles nowadays or jumping into or jumping into the stands.

31:50But I think, you know, as a player, he could play in any generation, without a doubt. Fair enough. Because you've played with some players and you put him up there with the very best? Yeah, definitely. I mean, I've played with, as I said, I've played with bloody Gazza. I've played with Jochev. I've played with so many people. I'm against so many people today. And I've played with a lot of great people. But it's always hard when you say he's up there with the best because he only played for a short period of time. You know, but I think as far as what he gave us at Manchester United to continue the way we kept going and winning titles, he's a great at Manchester United and he had great attributes.

32:32It's just a shame that he retired so quickly, to be fair. But that just shows the mental strength of the man. You know, someone who's, you know, probably one of the best players at that time in the world decides just to hang up his boots. I think, I'm not sure, I think he was 29 or something, I can't remember. So he was mentally, mentally tough, you know. But yeah, listen, when you talk to mate-night fans, they still sing his song. Every time he goes to Old Trafford, they sing his song. So that's how great he was. Paul Innes, a bit more from the governor later on. But it is extraordinary, isn't it?

33:05He comes into the team, they win the title. And while he was at United, if he wasn't banned for Kung Fu kicking a fan, they won the title every season. Remarkable. They missed out by one goal and lost the FA Cup final by one goal. All right. And they had a couple of doubles in there as well, which he played a major part in. What are the numbers that really make the case for him being one of the all-time greats, if not the greatest in the Premier League era? If you're talking raw numbers, Cantona scored or assisted 115 goals in 143 Premier League games for United. He was obviously the fastest player to 50 assists because it was a new world.

33:44In fact, assists weren't properly counted, as we've discussed, until the mid-90s, but going back, that record wasn't broken until Mesut Ozil did it in 2018, which kind of shows just how quickly he hit the ground running. So, yeah, I mean, where I think it is a bit more debatable is that he was clearly a very, very talented player coming into a league where, you know, almost just playing off the shoulder of a centre-forward was revolutionary. And he had that combination of physical strength and grace that immediately, you know, as Paul said, he was able to mix it with English footballers but then do stuff that they couldn't even dream of.

34:23And you look at the way that he slotted into that United team as well. It was perfectly set up for him. He had Mark Hughes as a strike partner. He had Andre Kinchelskis and Ryan Giggs or Lee Sharp on the flanks. Absolutely rapid. In that first season, I think it was Ince and Brian McClare behind him in central midfield. The following summer, Roy Keane comes in. So you have this extremely solid structure behind him, these flying wingers and then a battle-hardened strike partner. And Cantona is just dropped into the middle of all that and connects it all and pulls things together. I think Alex Ferguson said that he was the perfect player at the perfect club at the perfect time.

35:04And that's what it was. And I think we're going to go on to talk about perhaps the sense that he didn't quite hit the same levels in European competition. and I think one thing that enabled him to thrive in the Premier League was the fact that, as Duncan said, playing in that kind of withdrawn striker role, slowing things down, putting his foot on the ball, that gave him an advantage, but that was how European teams played already. So I think that, on top of multiple other factors that we'll go on to discuss, but I think that perhaps explains why there was a bit of a drop-off between his performance level domestically and in Europe.

35:43Well, indeed, and the game that's often held up as an example of him failing to do it when he wasn't playing in a league that didn't have lots of foreigners, was the semi-final in his final season against Borussia Dortmund, Tom. I actually watched the highlights of the first leg, the away leg, this morning. And so United lost both legs 1-0, and that was as close as they got to reaching a Champions League final while Cantona was there. It bears mention that Dortmund did actually win that season. And Dortmund then did, of course, win, but Juventus in the final. But there were two occasions in the second half where Cantona played absolutely flawless through balls, one for Nicky Butt, one for David Beckham, put them clean through on goal, and I think Butt hit the post and Beckham shot wide.

36:31And that game was kind of used as an example of him not stepping up to the plate. and in particular in the build-up to the Dortmund goal, he goes in for a challenge midway inside his own half and slightly showily tries to flick the ball over the head of one of the Dortmund midfielders. It doesn't come off. The ball falls to a Dortmund player who has a shot that he's deflected in. And Roy Keane in his autobiography pinpointed that moment and said maybe that was the point at which Cantona sort of realised the writing was on the wall for him as a European player with Manchester United. But in actual fact, if you take his performance as a whole in that specific game, he actually did an awful lot right.

37:10And it was just his teammates failing to apply the finishing touch. I didn't want to play anymore. I'd lost the passion. I think I retired so young because I wanted to improve every time. And I didn't feel that I could improve any more. Cantona has since said of his decision just a few months after that Dortmund game to hang up his boots. When you look at his goal scoring ratio, though, while he was active, it's incredible. Torres, for example, incredibly prolific for Liverpool, 0.37 goals per game. Ronaldo's goal ratio for Man United, 0.41 goals per game. Cantona's goal ratio for Man United, 0.44.

37:49Scholes in the six-yard area, five behind. James gets there just first. Cantona! When we're talking about the impact of Cantona, though, and without being funny a lot of it is off the field or the ways that he had influence on the English game go beyond goals and assists and that's something that Daniel you talk a lot about in your book and what I'm referring to here is what he did with United while he was serving at what at the time and still is the record band for a footballer after his two-footed challenge on Matthew Simmons in the stands at Selhurst Park in January 1995. I like the way you said two-footed it, as if that was the offence.

38:32Just one foot, fine. The ball was there. But yeah, two foot.

38:59Four times he walked last season.

39:04Three times he walked last season. Once more in a pre-season game. And now for the fifth time in his Manchester United career. Eric Cantona is sent off. Oh, what's going on here? Cantona is getting involved with some supporters. Oh, this is outrageous.

39:26Norman Davis, the Manchester United kit man, trying to pull him away. It's all got wildly out of hand, and once more, Eric Cantona is the man of the centre of a dramatic controversy. It's something that we're all used to seeing now, but the shock of it at the time, the most famous footballer in England, involved in the most shocking incident of off-field violence, and then receiving the record ban. It was an absolutely huge story, Daniel. Yeah, it was. It led national news, never mind national sports news, for a few days. It was also this kind of crowning piece of evidence from his critics, because he'd been sent off for kicking West Ham player previously.

40:16There was this sense that although Ferguson had done a brilliant job in the first two years or the first 18 months of kind of guiding Cantona through and calming him down and creating an environment in which Cantona referred to Ferguson as a father figure, there was these sort of suspicions that that was beginning to wear off and that the kind of real enfant terrible was coming through and you could never keep kind of quiet that animalistic tendency for too long so it was held up as that it was held up as by his critics as we told you this would happen even though it was this incredibly shocking incident that nobody could see coming in hindsight immediately afterwards everyone said well of course this was going to happen it's Eric Cantona you're dealing with it tell us what happened that day at Southers Park it?

41:05So Manchester United are struggling. The suggestion is that Crystal Palace players were giving him rough treatment, which it should be said, Cantona had to deal with a huge amount of him in the Premier League. And he was sent off against West Ham, but he was routinely kicked around. That element of first divisionness in the Premier League had not gone away. And because there was this kind of suspicion that you could wind him up, that's what used to happen. fans opposing players would do it and cantonari sent off for kicking out again and is seen to have completely lost his head is made to leave the pitch and at that point in time players just left the pitch by the nearest exit uh this incident caused a rule change where players went straight to the tunnel rather than going around the side of the pitch because of the abuse they would get.

42:02And yeah, Crystal Palace fan Matthew Simmons is giving him without a shadow of a doubt lip, as Jonathan Pearce famously said. The mad side of genius, Cantona is dismissed. Where can there be a place in the game for a man of such extravagant talent, a man of such wicked temperament, a man who has been quite rightly dismissed. Oh my goodness me! He has kicked! He's punched a fan! Eric Cantona has jumped in and sees a kung fu kick! A fan! Manchester United fans are coming across. I have never seen as disgraceful an incident as that in all my years in football. Eric Cantona should be thrown out of the game for that sort of incident.

42:51I care not one jot about his supreme talent. He launched himself six feet into the crowd and kung fu kicked a supporter who was without a shadow of a doubt giving him lip without a shadow of a doubt giving him stick simmons was yeah had form for maybe not seeing a particularly uh stand-up citizen at football games all the time i think it's pretty clear that he was giving cantona abuse i should say probably the sort of abuse that lots of players got at the time doesn't necessarily explain a player launching into the crowd and kicking him. But yeah, it was just an absolutely astonishing moment. And the Manchester United players are like, cannot believe it either.

43:39You know, they drag him away. They get him into the tunnel. They said at half time, it was just under the weirdest atmosphere. A member of staff has to go into the dressing room of Cantona and try and calm him down, and just stop him kind of raging. And yeah, then all hellblades loose around Manchester United football club. Wasn't the issue at Palace is that the tunnel's in the corner, so he had to walk because where he got sent off, yeah. Yeah, in your book you mention the fact that he's gone past several times. He appears to receive some abuse because he stops and looks up as if he's just heard something and then checks himself and walks on.

44:15And it's maybe the third time he gets to right by the tunnel where Matthew Simmons has raced down to offer him some words of encouragement. Off, off, off, go on. Cantona, have an early shower, as Matthew Simmons claimed he had said. He definitely said that as well. So, I mean, if anything, Eric's overreacted. Simmons, who himself would be charged with using threatening words and behaviour during the incident, which earned him a£500 fine and a 12-month football banning order. when he received his sentence, and was leapt over the bench and himself kicked and punched the counsel for the prosecution.

44:53Throttled the prosecutor, sort of tried to get him in a chokehold. And there's an arresting court artist's picture of that exact incident, which is worth looking at. Like the home in Bart Simpson? Yeah, very much so. Good Lord, good Lord. Well, an eyewitness to all of this and more was Incy. Here he is again. Paul, you mentioned the challenge on Matthew Simmons that day at Selhurst Park. And you were right there. You leapt in as well and got scolded by hot tea, I think. Did you not? Yeah, I'm not sure if it was tea or coffee. I can't remember. I don't like coffee. So that's probably what made me angry.

45:39Yeah, to be fair, what people don't understand is that I went to court with Eric at the same time. you know i got charged with actually the same charge as eric canton are because one of some bloke called tony warren he was a dustman said to the police that i'd punched him in in the melee that went on as a as a as the fans submerged down towards us i was sitting in the change room after the game and we couldn't believe what had gone on uh with eric and then um so alex said oh the police want to sit here i said well what for oh someone's just reported you for punching him in the face so i was like and and you know when you kind of because it happened so quick the melee the frack ass you can't remember if you did or you didn't because they were coming towards us we were going towards them and we ended up going to court the same day we stayed in the croydon hotel we went out the night before we had dinner went to a nightclub and then we came back about half past two in the morning and went to court about half past nine brilliant brilliant that day when When he was leaving the field, were you just happened to be standing nearby or when he leapt into the crowd, you ran over?

46:43How did it work? No, no, because listen, when he got sent off and we just presumed that the kick man, Norman, was walking him back towards the challenge so we didn't really, we're thinking, right, we're down to 10 men. We need to focus on the game. And then I just heard this kind of noise, you know, I turned around and the next moment I seen King Eric in the crowd. you know what I mean so I thought what the f*** has gone on here so then obviously all the lads have just run over there and then all their fans have come down towards us and it was kind of weird because once that had happened the game kind of just fizzled out because everybody's mind was on what I just they couldn't believe what had just happened you know so the game kind of fitted out and I thought I just want to get back into the champion you know and we got back to the champion and he was just sitting there and you know listen I don't think he, I don't think there was any remorse from him, Jimbo.

47:40I think he did what a thousand players or a million players would want to do, you know, especially the abuse that he was taking from Matthew Simmons about his mum and all that stuff. So, you know, I think he did something what a lot of players would want to do. So, not condoning it, but I'm just saying. But yeah, listen, I think, you know, take that way because I think sometimes you don't have to be remembered for that. A lot of people remember Eric Cantona for that incident and he's 100 times better than that. He's a better player. He's a lovely person. You know, great, great guy to play with and got a lot of respect for him.

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49:30Well, I'm here to tell you, it's time to redefine our vacation time. We all deserve a getaway that is meaningful but doesn't require a ton of planning. Spring break isn't what it used to be. It's better. This spring, stay three nights and get a$50 Best Western gift card. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. Okay, class, let's begin. Psst, love your boots. I just sold a pair like that on eBay. Oh, really? Yeah, it took like two seconds to list, and they sold almost immediately. I've been selling everything lately. Some chunky boots, a faux fur coat I never wore, and a vintage chair that was more of an expensive clothing rack.

50:13You know, I actually bought these on eBay. Wait, are you, Kitty, sell stuff from Brooklyn? Okay, quiet, please. Find what you love, sell what you don't. eBay. Things people love.

50:30You're listening to The Totally Football Show with James Richardson. Now we do four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy us in glorious Technicolor on YouTube at The Totally Show. The immediate aftermath of that sentencing. So Paul was just mentioning how they were staying in the Croydon Hotel. Was it not straight after that that you get the first of what becomes this kind of legendary series of Cantona quotes? Was that not at the Croydon Hotel? It was in Croydon. and it was after... Because was he not convicted initially? And then I think he successfully appealed against it, and it was in the press conference after the appeal that he uttered the baffling line that no one could understand.

51:10What is this mad Frenchman going on about? It doesn't make any sense. When the seagulls follow the troller, it's because I think sergeants will be strong into the sea. Thank you. Thank you. Well, Tom, decipher it for us. Well, I mean, you're very... Sorry to jump in, but I remember at the time being infuriated at the performative idiocy of the media at the time. They were all like, well, this makes no sense. You don't get trawlers and seagulls in football, apart from Brighton. But it was pretty obvious. Yeah, it was a very obvious reference to the media and photographers who constantly swarmed around him in the hope of getting some kind of titbit.

52:05But it was presented as if it was the utterings of, you know, a lunatic. What I really enjoyed, one of the many things I really enjoyed about your book, Daniel, was that you revealed that he actually rehearsed this little bit of genius. Yeah, he had it up his sleeve all along. Beforehand, he was sort of ruminating about wanting to say something that could make sense, but that he also correctly predicted might blow a few minds in the room at the time. And so he kind of went over it. He wanted to go with sprats, is that correct? Yeah, he wanted to go with, yeah, they think that Spratz will be in the water or something and changed his mind to just simplify it a little bit.

52:50But yeah, it was pre-planned. Okay. Well, if Cantona's ban was supposed to limit his impact on the premiership, you could make the case that he did quite the opposite because, Daniel, of the way that he and the club reacted to it and how they used his time. Yes, I think there's two parts to this. Firstly, is Manchester United retaining the services of Eric Cantona? So a few months into the ban, he tries to play a friendly against Press North End behind closed doors. And the FA basically writes to Manchester United and say, you can't do this. He's banned from football activities. So, yeah, stop it effectively.

53:30And that really annoys Cantona. He feels like he's being sort of routinely punished over the course of the ban. And he basically decides, I've got no future in English football because of this. I'm going to leave. He goes to Paris and Ferguson is persuaded by Cathy, his wife, that this is one of those occasions where he must go beyond what he would normally do and should just go to Paris by himself on a whim and try and reason with Cantona. so he goes to Paris lands in a hotel and gets a message from Jean-Jacques Amorfini who is Cantona's lawyer and vice president of the French PFA at the time with a little note of where of a restaurant to come to he comes out of the hotel and there's a motorbike waiting there with a spare helmet so Ferguson hops on the back of this motorbike speeds through Paris goes to this restaurant sits down with Eric and they thrash it out and he agrees to sign a new contract and stay United that's the first game-changing moment because it was very easy to see that Cantona could have left there would have been places probably Syria I guess into a rumoured that would have been a real natural place for him to land I think so keeping him to the first big thing and then the second big thing is that Cantona says to him to to sorry Ferguson says to Cantona I don't just want you to stay, but I want you to be the mentor of the class of 92 players, because I think we've got something special here.

54:59They're already starting to produce, but what they need is someone to take them under their wing, to show them, you know, to show them about dedication to training, show them about nutrition, to show them how to set an example, show them technique. And I want you to be the guy that does that. And that is ultimately, I think that's the most influential thing that Cantona does in his career. And I think it is, I argue in the book, it's what made that Manchester United team. You listen to quotes by all those players and they say, Cantona was the difference. He's the guy I went to. I didn't go to Ferguson.

55:29I went to Cantona. He's the reason that Beckham stays practising free kicks every day. He's the reason that Neville says, I was able to squeeze everything out of my performance, was all they say down to Cantona. And Ferguson in one of his books, I think it's leading, says more important than a manager at times is having a mentor player, someone that you don't need to think about, but that you know is doing your job on the pitch. And he said he never had anyone better than Cantona than that in his career at Manchester United before. And yeah, so Ferguson kind of says it was a difference maker too.

56:03I'm sure some of that stuff is very easy to say in hindsight, and it sounds really nice, but so many of that team say it that you kind of have to buy into that. And the ban was also the birth of the cult of Cantona. I mean, pre-ban, he was adored and he had had this remarkable impact, this transformative impact on Majesty United. But that period of exile, if you like, when it looked like there was a very real danger of him leaving the club, leaving the country, turned him into this sort of cult hero. And the Cantona that emerges from the tunnel prior to the game against Liverpool in October 1995 is a different footballer and a different individual to the one that we'd last seen at Selhurst Park that January.

56:51He looked different. He put on weight that he never really lost throughout that phase of his United career. He'd shaved his head when he first arrived in England. And in his early years at Manchester United, he had this sort of like slicked back black hair. whereas when he comes out of the tunnel for the Liverpool game he's basically got a buzz cut. Just behind you there. There it is in fact. And there was this sort of, there was always a swagger to him but now, you know, and as Daniel says, he was the elder statesman showing this very promising but very callow group of players how it's done and, you know, lest we forget this was two months after Alan Hansen's famous you'll win nothing with kids quote and that quote was kind of flung back in Hansen's face multiple times over the course of his broadcasting career.

57:43But United won the double that season, partly because they had loads of talented kids, but also because on one of the pitch you had Peter Schmeichel, who probably had his best ever season as a United player in goal. And at the other end, you had Eric Cantona. And in the spring of that 95-96 season, he went on this run of deciding games single-handedly that basically won United the title.

58:25It's hard to overstate the fervour in that period. It was almost like a medieval king that's been exiled. and United didn't win the league or the FA Cup in 1995 and everyone who didn't support Manchester United, which was quite a lot of people in those days, it's over. And as Daniel says, it seemed likely at various points that Cantona would never play again. And then the build-up to that Liverpool game, for me that Liverpool game still feels like the first, I'm pretty sure it was a Super Sunday game and it feels like the first kind of like, I think there would have been a Sky montage beforehand, they would have been all week, they'd been building up to it.

59:06It felt like that first sort of destination game that we're so used to these days.

59:14Today at Old Trafford, it's the return of Eric Cantona, the most talented, temperamental and talked about footballer in Britain. His eight month worldwide ban ended at midnight and 16 hours later he's back amid sheer hero worship from the Manchester United faithful. Whatever his crimes, the fans here absolutely worship this fellow. They've waited so long for this day and what a comeback match for him. The always dramatic fixture between Manchester United and their arch rivals Liverpool. McManaman dispossessed, Sharp taking it off him. Played forward by Buck to Cole, this is promising, Cantona, gets in the cross, oh and here's a great chance, the Manchester United have the lead, Nicky Budd is the scorer, and Cantona set it up, within seconds of his comeback, look at what it means to the United players, they besiege him, Alex Ferguson can't keep the smile off his face, and this is the magical good quality of this man.

1:00:24Cantona. Is this the moment? It is. Cantona is back. And he's back with a goal. Look what it means to him. And look what it means to the fans of Manchester United. They have waited so long to see this. There's also a really nice serendipity in that ban in that part of Cantona's punishment, in fact, the legal punishment he gets is a community service order. And the community service that he's instructed to do is to teach football to kids in Manchester. And Cantona has this kind of great realisation while doing that community service that he can have an influence on, you know, not just his own game and a football team, but on the lives of young players.

1:01:17There's a quote from him about it when he says that when I see these boys of Manchester when they speak to me in hushed voices I want them to go away happy and convinced they've met a player who's more like them than they know and there's this kind of yeah say really nice serendipity that those boys of Manchester effectively becomes the 92 when he's asked to do exactly the same that kind of community service work by Ferguson when he's not playing and when he comes back after the ban right and it's wonderfully fitting that that first game back was the first time that all six of the class of 92 had appeared in a Man United shirt or in a senior side.

1:01:51Gary Neville, Phil Neville, Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs as starters, David Beckham and Paul Scholes as substitutes. Tom, you referenced that. I was going to say Canton-RT is Nicky Butt up for the opening goal inside the first two minutes, I think. Incredible. Incredible. And he deserves tremendous credit for coming back from that length. How long was the ban? Nine months? 250 50 days. Hence the, yeah. Ah, that's what I mean. Tom, you referenced that run of goal scoring that he went on in the, that later on that year, spring of 1996, he scores in six successive matches. He scores the winner in a 1-0 win against Arsenal, the winner in a 1-0 win over Tottenham, the winner in a 1-0 win over Coventry, and in what proves to be the title decider against Newcastle at St James' Park.

1:02:41Paul waiting in the box. This is Giggs who's let it run for Cole. He's run along the whole line, Phil Neville's cross. Pantone coming in and he's scored for Manchester United.

1:02:57They've been under the cosh for so much of this match, but six minutes into the second half, Manchester United break and score crucially. All in all, 14 goals in 30 games as he secured his third Premier League title in four seasons, his fourth English top flight title in five seasons in the country. And, of course, he adds one the following year as well. Well, there you go. So clearly, under any number of categories, he is the stuff of legend. What do we say then to people who feel, yes, he was great and clearly very talented and hugely charismatic? But were he to pitch up in the Premier League these days, in this already incredibly polymedia entity that is English top flight football, and so ridiculously stuffed and overstaffed with stars from around the world, what kind of impact would an Eric Cantona have now?

1:04:00Well, it's impossible to say because so much of his impact was down to his novelty. the fact that he was able to do the things he do was because he was the first player of that ilk. So would he not be able to do those things now? No, because we now know, you know, we are used to the idea of a withdrawn centre-forward. I mean, it's not like he invented the position. I mean, Kenny Dalglish was doing it, you know, 10, 15 years previously, but this was a time when English football was pretty belts and braces, 4-4-2. And in the same way that Jose Mourinho, the following decade, had exploited that by setting Chelsea out in a 4-3-3 and putting players in positions on the pitch where their opponents weren't expecting them.

1:04:44Cantona posed opposition teams' problems by dropping deep off the centre-forward and playing in a way that they weren't used to having to contend with. I don't think you can kind of plonk Cantona into the modern era because the modern era doesn't exist without Cantona. Right. Very good point. I guess the reason I'm asking is that there is this notion that he is a legend and was hugely influential. But part of the reason that he stood so big was that the Premier League was so small at the time. And I'm just curious to know what kind of stature he would have in and around your Haarlands, etc. Yeah.

1:05:28I mean, we did obviously a podcast about Dennis Bergkamp and it was a similar thing. brilliant in the Premier League, many memorable goals. I just cut and pasted it. But didn't do as much in Champions League games. Because I think, to Tom's point, even some of Cantona's most iconic goals, he was an absolute master of the chip from just outside the box. You don't really see that sort of goal anymore now because goalkeepers don't come off their line and leave that space. So it's almost like a different sport. But we wouldn't get to the point we are now. It wouldn't be the all-encompassing thing that dominates everything in the country without Cantona and Manchester United in the mid-90s.

1:06:09And just on the very specific point around his performance level in European competition, we shouldn't forget that Manchester United were discovering the Champions League at this point. They had no prior experience to fall back on. You know, English clubs had had their long ban from European competition because of the Heysel disaster. And English clubs were playing with one, if not both, hands tied behind their backs because of UEFA's rules about foreign players, which in United's case meant that any non-English player was considered a foreigner. So Ryan Giggs is a foreigner. The Irish players are considered foreigners.

1:06:41Brian McClare is a foreigner. You know, when they go and lose 4-0 away at Barcelona in the group phase, they had Gary Walsh in goal and Peter Schmeichel sitting in the stands. So, you know, they weren't ever able to put or they were very infrequently able to put their strongest team out. And also they were, you know, they were getting to grips with continental competition coming up against that great Juventus team of the mid 90s. So Cantona wasn't the only one who struggled to, you know, to adapt in that way. And yeah, I guess, you know, you could say that it was legitimate to expect a little bit more of him.

1:07:14Interestingly, Sir Alex Ferguson, in one of his autobiographies, wondered whether Cantona had some kind of mental block when it came to European competition, that he was aware that he was expected to be the man to kind of turn up and produce the goods and whether that weighed on him slightly. but again to go back to that 96-97 Champions League campaign the quarterfinals United beat Porto 4-0 in the first leg Cantona's brilliant I think he scores the opening goal runs the show and that felt almost like he'd finally arrived there's then the semi-final against Dortmund which was a bit of a sliding doors moment and then we never see him in the Champions League again Daniel?

1:07:54Yeah I think it's as ever with Cantona It's about story arc rather than about numbers and about impact at the time or about how he would play now. It's about this guy who was, you know, it's impossible to state overstate now how kind of hated he was by the British media when he did that Kung Fu kick, when he was kind of seen as the bad side of English football, like a sport trying to get, trying to grab at its new future. And then by 1996, he's named by the Football Writers Association as the player of the year for setting the example on and off the pitch. It's just this mad story arc that he's able, by both doing good things and bad things, he's always able to be the protagonist of the Premier League story over a period of three years.

1:08:40Of course, these days he's protagonist of stories in another sense as an actor. Tremendous in that Stella Artois advert I thought about, the farmers being rock stars. Loved that one. Also in The Killer recently, alongside Michael Fassbender, also notably given a President's Award at a recent-ish FIFA event, upon receipt of which he came out with, I felt, a less successful piece of wisdom. But some people liked it. The recipient of the 2019 President's Award. What's going on through your mind right now? As flies to wanton boys, we are for the gods. They kill us for the sport. Soon the science will not only be able to slow down the aging of the cells.

1:09:42Soon the science will fix the cells. to the state and so we become eternal

1:09:56only accidents crimes wars will still kill us but unfortunately crimes and wars will multiply. I love football. Thank you. Thank you, Eric. But hey. Not his best work. I think we can all agree on that. Not his best work. I didn't mind that. I mean, the cultural crossovers were endless. Morrissey had a tour in the mid-90s where he'd come on stage of the tambourine with Eric Hansen over it on every night. Written on the tambourine? Yeah. Yeah. So. There you go. someone's got one of them in their attic somewhere indeed indeed what a figure what a figure as you say a man who has touched our lives in so many ways and it was lovely to have the chance to look back on what an immense figure he has been the very best of luck to him if you're hungry for more 250 days cantonized kung fu and the story of man you i think that's the title right yep is available now and also in audiobook form, Daniel.

1:11:12Yeah, someone messaged me yesterday saying it's on Spotify. So it's on Spotify. I get absolutely no royalties as a result of the deal I did for that book. So fill your boots and do what you like with it. I would also give a shout out to Philippe Boclaire's book on Cantona, which is, I mean, a much more weighty and thorough tome than mine, but is absolutely superb. There you go. Lovely stuff. Daniel, thank you for being with us today. Many thanks to you, Mr. Vavavum, Tom Williams. And to you, Duncan Alexander. There is a quiz question, though, to be resolved. There is, yeah. So just to remind us of the question.

1:11:49Recap. Kanton, our first Frenchman to score in the Premier League. Who was the second Frenchman to score? And who are the two most recent Frenchmen to score their first goals in our league? All right. Before Tom weighs in on this, Daniel, do you have any idea? I don't. I mean, I was going to guess Remy Gard for the second one, but that's only as kind of generic early French Premier League player. I get really confused about who's French these days and who's Belgium. There's a lot of them. There's a lot of that. Cherky, would he be? I think, yeah, for the question two, Cherky was going to be one of my picks.

1:12:24Kruppi, maybe, for the second one? Oh, that's a great shout. Junior Kruppi? They're both this season, but they're both quite far back, such as the French invasion of our league. Good Lord. who were the two most recent then two most recent are Randall Colomani which is the second most recent, it's called in February for Spurs and then just a matter of a few weeks ago, Adrian Truffaut for Bournemouth against Newcastle great use of O 'Course there Tom prepare to use it again as Duncan reveals who was unless you know my guess is going to be Dava Ginola another mercurial talent Who made his arrival in English football during Cantona's ban.

1:13:07So timed his first appearance very well. It was the summer of 95. You like French footballers. We think you may like this product. There you go. It all checks out. Yeah. Again, Sheffield Wednesday. Yeah. Absolute scorcher. Who could have signed Eric Cantona. What the... We've come full circle. We've completed the podcast. Thank you, everyone. Listener, your work here is done. Many thanks to you as well and producers Charlie and Jesse. We'll be back with more Totally Extras soon, but there's loads of them already out there if you're hungry for more retro thrills. For now, from all of us here, it's goodbye.

1:14:01The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.

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