Manchester United legend

Chapter 25 The Locker Room Reaction
At the start of the season, United were in an unimaginably difficult situation.After a bad start, even after being hit, the whole team fell into a downturn.Before the arrival of Cantona's signing, Manchester United only won 13 games in the past 2 games, scored only 9 goals, dropped to 8th in the standings, and both cups were eliminated early.An important signing in the summer, Dion Dublin had his leg broken.

When entering December, some people at the Manchester United club even proposed to start with Alan Shearer and quote David Hurst-of course, these attempts failed like jokes.Under the predicament, the officials in charge of the transfer even put Mick Halford and Lee Chapman on the signing list.

On this day, Ferguson met with chairman Martin Edwards to report on the team, analyze the league situation, and discuss transfer goals.Just when Ferguson wanted to highlight Cantona and discuss the possibility.

Edwards interrupted Ferguson: "Those guys at Leeds United are bullshit, so don't try to get their ideas."

At this time, Edwards' phone rang.It was Bill Fotherby, the chairman of Leeds United, who called!He asked Edwards if he could agree to Dennis Irwin's move to Leeds.Edwards dealt with the opponent in shock and said that he needed to discuss with the head coach and transfer officials-he didn't say no.

Edwards in turn asked whether Leeds might consider selling Chapman.

Fotherby: "Martin, stop kidding, Chapman is our core midfielder, he is not for sale!"

Edwards laughed loudly: "Haha! I was just asking, but Bill, you should also know that Evans is also the core of our defense. If I sell him, I think that guy from Scotland will kill me."

The presidents of the two clubs tested each other's truth and reality, but Ferguson was very anxious. He kept gesturing to the chairman, murmured words beside him, and desperately tried to stop Edwards from continuing to discuss the matter of Chapman and Evans.

When Ferguson found that these were of no avail, he wrote Cantona's name directly on a piece of paper, blocked the chairman's eyes, and asked the chairman to directly ask Cantona about the possibility of transferring.

Ferguson was anxious inside. How could he know that the old fox Edwards was playing tricks.

After fooling Chapman with Fotherby on the ground, Edwards inadvertently asked Cantona. Fotherby said that Chapman was not for sale, but Cantona could talk about it.

Fotherby also said: "The transfer needs to be consulted with the head coach and the players. It is estimated that Wilkinson has no objection, but Cantona is not by my side, so I don't know what he means."

In fact, Wilkinson was right next to Fotherby, looking smug.After receiving the notice, Cantona said that he would meet with Ferguson.After meeting with Ferguson, he immediately expressed his willingness to transfer.

In this way, when Manchester United announced the signing of Leeds United striker Cantona at a price of 100 million pounds, everyone was stunned. Even when Ferguson's assistant coach Kidd heard about the price, his first reaction was whether Cantona "is missing a leg or other parts."

The all-pervasive paparazzi failed to find any news, but when the transfer news was announced 24 hours later, the English football world was shaken, and the reporters caught "a big fish"!
Because Cantona was a notorious troublemaker, he had already made a bad statement while playing in France.His temper is as big as his game skills.

When he was in the French Marseille team, he scolded the assistant coach in training, fought with his teammates, and even vented his anger on the national team. During the training of the national team, he publicly insulted the French coach Michels, saying that the old coach is "a pile of shit"!As a result, he was expelled from the national team by the French Football Association. Even if he admitted his mistake afterwards, a public apology would not help.

In January 1989, Cantona was substituted midway in a friendly against Torpedo Moscow.As a result, the furious Cantona threw the jersey on the ground, pushed the coach away and left!
Afterwards, he ignored the coach's request to admit his mistake, and the Marseille team immediately imposed a suspension on him. The then Marseille team coach threatened that as long as he was in Marseille for one day, Cantona would never even think about playing!Cantona suffered serious blows one after another in the French national team and Ligue [-] giants, and public opinion unanimously targeted him.

But he is still rebellious and goes his own way.Because of the bad words of his club teammates, Cantona directly beat him up severely. As a result, he was suspended by the club for ten days and fined one month's salary. In the end, Cantona refused to apologize. He was isolated and boycotted in the locker room, and his position in the club became extremely embarrassing.

Later, in a game, he refused to accept the referee's penalty, directly grabbed the football and hit the referee with the ball.Such tough behavior directly led to him being sent off with a red card, and the Disciplinary Committee of the Football Association imposed an additional one-month suspension on him.

Even with such a punishment, Cantona still "doesn't change his viciousness". At the press conference, he publicly scolded the Football Association officials as "idiots" and was doubled to a two-month suspension.

The independent Cantona has become a well-known "bad boy" in French football. Unruly, he dismisses the slander coming to his face. In December 1991, Cantona terminated the club contract in a rage and announced for the first time that he would hang up his boots.

Later, under the persuasion and guidance of his mentor Jurui, and with the help of Platini, Cantona came to the UK to start playing again and joined Leeds United.

Under the leadership of Cantona, Leeds United won the championship last season.Cantona became a mixture of genius and devil.

On the one hand, on the field, Cantona performed well on behalf of Leeds United and often scored goals. The fans thought he was an angel.

On the other hand, his relationship with his teammates and coaches is very bad. Leeds United coach Wilkinson has a headache for Cantona, and he can't control a player like Cantona.

So when Manchester United offered Cantona, Leeds United coach Wilkinson agreed to Manchester United's offer to Cantona.Wilkinson thinks that Cantona is a cancer in the locker room, so sell him to Manchester United and let Cantona harm Manchester United!
After the transfer of the party was settled, even Ferguson was a little nervous and unconfident. He was not sure whether he had made a good deal, and he didn't know whether he could handle Cantona.

Just the arrival of such a man at Manchester United caused the same reaction in the Manchester United dressing room.

At the beginning, the Manchester United players remained silent. They were shocked by the news at first, and then they were observing and waiting for what the Frenchman would bring?They wondered what kind of person this was.

The Manchester United team is off today, and the team's central defender Pallister is enjoying a leisurely time at home, when the phone rang, it was a call from a reporter friend of his.

The reporter friend told him that Manchester United had signed a new striker, asked him to guess who it was, and asked him what he thought?

Pallister hated playing the damn guessing game, he had guessed every striker he knew and never figured out who it was, and when his journalist friend told him it was Cantona, his jaw dropped to the floor.

Meanwhile, Lee Sharpe was at an autograph event hosted by his sneaker sponsor.

When reporters told him United had signed Cantona, he reacted exactly like fans all over England. "Okay, that's right—just kidding, it's impossible!"

Then he turned on the radio and heard the news: a huge bolt of lightning had struck him, and he was stunned.Then the media began to review Cantona's past career.Lee Sharp's thought at the time was: 'This guy' is crazy, fuck it!Manchester United will have a good show in the future.

Captain Brian Robson also knew about Manchester United's signing of Cantona. He didn't think it was a good signing for Manchester United.Because of Eric's constant transfers, he can't stay anywhere for long, always causing a lot of trouble.Robson was afraid he would break the unity in the locker room.

Mark Hughes heard the news and thought, "Manchester United are already unlucky enough. If Cantona harms us here, then our championship this season will be lost. Hey!"

Jost had just finished training with his teammates. When his teammates told him that Cantona had come to Manchester United, Jost's reaction was: "Who? Cantona? Who was Cantona?"

(End of this chapter)