Cantona, who had already steered United to Premier League glory in 1992/93 and 1993/94, was sent off as a result of kicking Palace defender Richard Shaw. But it was as he walking away down the touchline that things took an even more sinister turn.
A Palace fan by the name of Matthew Simmons, a man Cantona has dismissively referred to as ‘the hooligan’ in the years since, rushed down several rows of the adjacent stand to hurl abuse. In response, Cantona jumped over the hoardings and landed a kick and some punches.
In a new book by author Wayne Barton titled King Eric: Portrait of the Artist Who Changed English Football, former United chairman Martin Edwards described the shock that followed.
“I went into the dressing room afterwards and it was dead quiet. We were all stunned, really. I don’t think Alex said anything to him,” Edwards recalled in an extract published by the Daily Mirror.
“The controversy went with the territory of being at Manchester United, but I had never seen anything like Selhurst before and I don’t think anybody else had. It was deeply unusual.”
United took swift action, immediately suspending Cantona for the rest of the season. He was also given an eight-month suspension by the FA that ran into the following campaign, while a criminal charge even yielded a two-week prison sentence that was dropped to 120 hours of community service.
Cantona returned to action in October 1995 and went on to inspire United to a domestic double that season, but his absence in the final few months of the 1994/95 campaign left a big ‘what if’.
At the time, United were battling nouveau riche Blackburn for the Premier League title. Without their talisman and X-factor, Ferguson’s team finished just one point shy of the new champions on the final day of the season, while they also lost the FA Cup final to Everton.
Might Cantona have made the difference that could have given United three in a row? That could even have become four in a row the next year, and five with further success in 1996/97.
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Source : 90min