Manchester United legend

Chapter 70 The Dust Settles
Two days after the FA hearing ended, the Manchester United Club official also held a press conference in order to report the latest developments in the incident.

Facing the swarm of reporters, Cantona in a suit looked refined, elegant and noble.But he just sat quietly and said nothing.

It was Pitt, the spokesperson of the Manchester United club, who spoke, and Cantona said his most famous words slowly when the reporters were all eager to see.

There may be many explanations for this sentence, but relatively speaking, the most obvious one is to talk about his situation surrounded by the media. He used the metaphor of hungry seagulls surrounding fishing boats.Later, Cantona further explained: "This is just me giving them (reporters) a mirror to look at. In fact, I am not serious at all, but they analyzed it seriously."

Yes, at that moment Cantona was even more refined than the reporter or anyone else, he looked well-educated and well-mannered.He used this performance to remind everyone why he kicked the opponent.

There are constant meetings within Manchester United.In the end, it is still necessary to make a penalty decision on Cantona's suspension.

But there are still huge internal differences, and the debate between different opinions is very fierce.At the beginning, the management discussed the dismissal of Cantona.Ferguson strongly opposed it, and directly slapped the table with the club's management and major shareholders.

Ferguson endorsed Cantona with his own merits and fully defended Cantona at the club's meeting.

In the end, Ferguson suggested that it is best to suspend only 3 games. After being opposed by almost all management members, Ferguson said that his bottom line is that the suspension period until the end of the season is enough.

In the end, all parties compromised, and the Manchester United Club officially announced that it would ban Cantona for 8 months. In the end, the FA decided that the suspension period would start immediately until October 1995, an increase of 10 month.

The chairman of the FA Davis said in an interview with the media: "Ferguson is like a nuclear warhead exploding. When we were discussing the punishment, his appearance was enough to overturn the conference table." Manchester United thought the punishment was too severe, while the media thought the punishment was too weak.

FIFA extended this penalty to the whole world.In France, the Football Association dismissed Cantona as captain of the national team and expelled him from the national team.

In March, the judiciary also intervened, and the court sentenced Cantona to two months in prison for assault.

Cantona refused to accept the appeal.In the end, the judge ruled that Cantona did not need to serve his sentence in prison, but was fined 120 hours of social service and fined 2 pounds.

After hearing the verdict, Cantona flew back to his hometown in France, away from the land of right and wrong and the clamor of fans.

No one knew that Cantona had plans to leave British football at that time, and even planned to retire.

At the critical moment, Ferguson retained him.Ferguson defended Cantona himself.When Cantona returned to France disheartened, Ferguson flew to France himself, found Cantona's home, and persuaded Cantona to change his mind and continue to play for Manchester United.

Cantona was dissatisfied with some people's performance in this incident, but he was very grateful to Ferguson. In Ferguson's face, Cantona decided to continue playing for Manchester United.

Cantona stood his ground when recalling the scene years later, and he has always refused to apologize publicly for the incident.

Cantona once said: "I don't know if I did it right or wrong, but if I found myself in the same situation again, there is no doubt that I would do it again.

Many people said that I made hooligan actions back then, which caused great harm to the fans.

But I don't think these people should be in the stands at all.I think there must be many players who have the same idea as me and sometimes want to play this type of fan.

But they didn't do it in the end, and I did. I think they must be very happy, because I did something they dared not do.It's a special feeling, the best moment of my career. "

The British journalists who flew to France with Cantona unearthed more of Cantona's bad records.

Cantona received a suspension and returned to France.During the suspension period, Cantona and his pregnant wife went on holiday in Martinique, France, because the paparazzi were still relentlessly following them. In order to protect himself and his wife, Cantona had a dispute with the other party and injured an independent television news network reporter.

Of course, because in France, strict French privacy laws protect Cantona.

Cantona is such a person, rebellious, doing his own way.Therefore, the king will kick people directly when he is annoyed, and he will kick happily when he is insulted, and even dare to punch the referee.

Cantona's violent personality has not changed because of being in Manchester United and the Premier League.

He is such a person with clear principles, if he violates his bottom line, he will inevitably usher in a powerful attack from him.

However, no matter how tough and crazy he was, Manchester United always stood by his side; Ferguson always chose to trust and support him.

Cantona's suspension seems to be a major blow to Manchester United-in fact, many people later regarded Cantona's absence from the game as the most critical reason why Manchester United missed the championship.

To make matters worse, Mark Hughes was unfortunately injured at a critical moment and was absent for more than a month.Due to internal and external troubles, misfortunes never come singly, and Manchester United encountered a shortage of forwards.

Morale hit?Incomplete staff?Struggling?
No, this is Ferguson's Manchester United, they are not so delicate.The Red Devils quickly showed their sharp fangs in the ensuing game.

They are like a train with a super engine, rumbling and crushing all obstacles and tearing apart all enemies.

Manchester United won three games in a row in February, first relying on the newly joined Manchester United's Cole to score at home and beat Villa 1-0.

Then as a guest at Manchester City, they beat their opponents in the same city derby 3-0. It was Andy Cole and Kanchelski who scored twice.

This was followed by a 2-0 away win over Norwich City.The newly joined Andy Cole scored consecutive goals, Giggs assisted consecutively, and Kanchelski also scored consecutively. Manchester United's firepower was at full strength.

At the end of the month, Manchester United lost 0-1 to Everton in the away game. Everton led by Duncan Ferguson scored a goal with a corner kick at Goodison Park, and Manchester United was forced to stop its rapid progress.

Before entering March, Manchester United had accumulated 30 points in 63 games in the standings, only 3 points less than the leader Blackburn.

Then at the end of February, Jost heard a word from doorman Fat John that Ferguson had decided to loan Beckham to Preston.

This news shocked the young Beckham and his friends who were promoted from the youth team to the first team.

Although Ferguson personally said to Beckham, "Work hard, you will come back one day." But for Beckham, who officially signed with Manchester United in 1993 and has not played a formal league game for more than two years, such news is undoubtedly a bolt from the blue.

"One day you will come back" - that is not a promise at all, and coming back can also be something after being purged!

There have always been too many players who were not in the team's plan and were eventually given up by the team on loan.

At that time, Beckham thought that Ferguson and Manchester United were going to abandon him and treat him like a waste product.

Beckham didn't dare to question the coach's decision, and he didn't even dare to protest directly to Ferguson because he was introverted. He had to go to the coach of the youth team, Harrison, to express his inner distress.

Harrison said to Beckham, "Manchester United has a lot of high-level players in the first team. I never doubt your potential, but you still have huge room for improvement.

Rent-out workouts are only good for you, you can hit the real game.Where to go, you have to grasp clearly. "

Indeed, in Ferguson's view, although the young David has proved his potential with a beautiful goal in the last group match of the Champions League, his playing style is too delicate and weak, and there is still a huge distance from Manchester United's requirements.

Since Manchester United faced fierce competition on the multi-day front at that time, it was difficult to give Beckham enough opportunities to play. For him, he was extremely lacking in actual combat experience, and his skills could not be substantially improved.

Therefore, Ferguson decided that Beckham went to Preston to accept the beating and tempering of the third-tier league.

The decision to let Beckham train in the lower leagues seems extremely cold and unkind, which means being out of the manager's sight and often means losing the possibility of returning.

But in the end, Beckham accepted Ferguson's arrangement, packed his luggage silently, and left Old Trafford to meet his new challenge.

But everyone, including Jost, believed that Beckham would not be coming back.

(End of this chapter)