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Eric Cantona

LONDON. — In his first autobiography, published in the golden aftermath of Manchester United’s Treble success in 1999, Sir Alex Ferguson made a startling observation about the barrier which separated Eric Cantona from true greatness on the global stage.

“There were critics who argued that he (Cantona) just did not come through and deliver big performances on the major European nights,” Ferguson wrote. “I could not go along with that entirely, because there were occasions when Eric played marvellously for us.

“But I do admit that there was something, perhaps a mental block, that stopped him from being the best player in the world. There was an element in his nature that seemed to prevent him from realising the full potential of his incredible gifts.”

For those able to recall both the highs and lows of Cantona’s Old Trafford career, the Frenchman’s transformation into a mere mortal on the Champions League stage — most notably during a hugely disappointing semi-final against Borussia Dortmund in 1997 — ultimately rendered him a great player, but not a world-class one.

Yet with Ferguson revising his view of Cantona in his latest book, ‘Leading,’ the former United manager’s devotion to the player who undoubtedly acted as the catalyst for the club’s two decades of success is in danger of clouding the contribution and qualities of those players he continues to overlook.

In ‘Leading,’ Ferguson writes, “I don’t mean to demean or criticise any of the great or very good footballers who played for me during my 26-year career at United, but there were only four who were world class: Cantona, Giggs, Ronaldo and Scholes. And of the four, Cristiano was like an ornament on the top of a Christmas tree.”

How do you define a world-class footballer?

It is a purely subjective viewpoint, but if the most straightforward barometer was whether player X would get into a world XI at the peak of his powers, then it is difficult to make an argument for Cantona.

He is an iconic figure at Manchester United for a reason, and still the poster boy for a generation of middle-aged supporters who had all but given up hope the league championship ever returning to Old Trafford prior to Cantona’s arrival from Leeds in November 1992.

Cantona inspired Ferguson’s first great team to the title and a subsequent avalanche of silverware, he transformed the ethos on the training pitch, which was perhaps single greatest factor in the Class of 92 realising their incredible potential.

But world class? His inability to make a difference in the Champions League, and internationally with France, suggests otherwise.

Ferguson’s nostalgia is one thing, but it now appears to have become selective, with those players who crossed him finding themselves cast into the wilderness among the also-rans.

Even those who did not part on bad terms with Ferguson are discounted.

If squeezing into a world XI is the true hallmark of ‘world-class,’ then how can Ferguson overlook Peter Schmeichel — the best goalkeeper in the world during the 1990s — or his eventual successor, Edwin van der Sar?

David Beckham, for all of his detractors, was a world-class performer on the right of midfield for United, England and Real Madrid during the best years of his career, while Jaap Stam was the defensive rock on which the Treble success was built.

And Ruud van Nistelrooy, the Dutch forward who scored 150 goals in 219 appearances, was another who shone so brightly during his time with United that it is barely credible that Ferguson continues to blank out his contribution.

But as with all of Ferguson’s recent books, the Scot’s feud with Roy Keane has once again been allowed to colour his judgement to the extent that the Irishman has been ignored in his assessment of United’s world-class players during his 26-year reign as manager.

Unlike Cantona, Keane regularly delivered in the Champions League — his performance against Juventus in Turin in 1999 is continually held up as the benchmark for every United player — and the midfielder also drove Ferguson’s team on to many titles and cups between his arrival in 1993 and acrimonious departure in 2005.

On the international stage with the Republic of Ireland, Keane was a colossus prior to his World Cup bust-up with Mick McCarthy in 2002, and it is he, rather than Cantona, who has proved to be impossible to replace in the years since his exit at United.

Keane, like Schmeichel, Van der Sar, Beckham, Van Nistelrooy and Stam, was world-class. Cantona was not.

Perhaps it is time for Ferguson to draw a line under the rows and bitter fall-outs and give credit where it is due. — The Telegraph.