‘WE WERE ALL JUST STUNNED’
25 years on, ex-United chief looks back on THAT night at Selhurst Park
A new book, King Eric: Portrait of the Artist Who Changed English Football, tells the story of Premier League legend Eric Cantona’s career with eyewitness statements from key moments. In Express Sport’s first extract, we revisit that infamous night at Crystal Palace
THE sheer, unprecedented scale of what happened at Selhurst Park on January, 25, 1995 meant everyone had an opinion – and everyone wanted to voice it.
A 1-1 draw in south London has become arguably the most written-about game in Premier League history after Eric Cantona launched a kung-fu kick at Crystal Palace fan Matthew Simmons.
While Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson did not see the incident, chairman Martin Edwards was looking straight at it.
“It happened in perfect view of the directors’ box,” said Edwards. “As soon as Eric got involved with the player [Richard Shaw], you knew he was going to be sent off.
“As he was walking down the touchline there were a few of us looking at the players and wondering what had been said.
“Eric’s being led down the touchline and suddenly he breaks off and throws himself into a kung-fu kick at a supporter. I was thinking, ‘Bloody hell, he’s lost it. He’s gone mad.’
“I went into the dressing room afterwards and it was dead quiet. We were stunned. I don’t think Alex said anything to him.
“The controversy went with the territory of being at Manchester United, but I had never seen anything like what happened at Selhurst Park before.”
Palace manager Alan Smith, speaking to the BBC in 2015, appeared to have been seduced by a theatrical vision, saying: “What distinctly hit me was that they played in all black that night.
“None of them had shaved and they looked a pretty ferocious team. I was thinking, ‘This is going to be a long evening.’
“I don’t have sympathy with Cantona. He is a big man and he had given a fair amount out.”
Ferguson went to bed at 2am but could not sleep and got up at 5.25am to watch the video, saying what he saw was appalling.
He said: “I have never been able to elicit an explanation from Eric but my feeling is that anger at himself over the ordering off and resentment at the referee’s earlier inaction combined to take him over the brink. I am sure
Eric is haunted by it all now. But he had to go.”
It would take a month for Ferguson to do an about-turn and become defensive over his player.
In his diary entry of February 21 he wrote: “We are proud of the credibility of the club and we tried to uphold it. The Cantona thing hit us badly. You can’t leave your character in the dressing room, it goes on to the field with you.” Ferguson’s initial stance softened because he felt his player was being hung out to dry in a public trial by the media. Cantona was banned by United for the rest of the season.
He was told to attend a meeting with Ferguson at Old Trafford, where he was informed of the club’s position. While there, he took his son Raphael to the club store to get a replica shirt with ‘Cantona 7’ on the back.
Weeks later, when Cantona was suspended for nine months and fined £10,000 by an FA disciplinary commission, Ferguson said the only way he expected
another player to receive a similar ban was if they “ran over [FA chairman] Bert Millichip’s dog.”
He said: “I think the commission went too far. You can’t have people in charge of an organisation like the FA being dictated to by the media.”
Cantona’s team-mates rallied to his defence. In his first autobiography, midfielder Roy Keane said: “My immediate reaction was, ‘So what? Fair f ****** play to Eric’. I might have done the same myself.
‘When I saw the pictures I could see it was a nasty incident. But my attitude didn’t change. My heart went out to him. All the lads basically felt the same. We didn’t pat him on the back and say, ‘Well done’, but Eric was a good lad and we weren’t going to turn our backs on him now.”