Eric Cantona was up to his old tricks again as master of chaos and mayhem during the broadcast of Manchester United’s Premier League opener against Fulham. The football legend, part-time philosopher , poet and musician appeared to be a little bored during the intro to Friday night’s game and walked off the set - but not before aiming one of his trademark speeches/rants towards the camera. The Frenchman, known as ‘The King’ by United supporters, has traditionally been a man of many words - but only when he wants to say them.
And so it proved during online broadcaster Showmax’s coverage of Friday night’s Premier League clash at Old Trafford - win for the Red Devils. Asked if he was looking forward to the new season, the Frenchman merely nodded - “Yeah, uh huh.” Cantona was sat alongside former Man United midfielder and fellow pundit Owen Hargreaves, who was forced to do the talking for the enigmatic Frenchman, whose main reaction to questions was to just rub his face in despair.
Later he was asked for his top goalscorer prediction, to which he said after a pause: “Eh...
we’ll see. Anything is possible.” He had the air of a thoroughly bored man who simply did not want to be there, and so he did what only Eric Cantona could do - he walked out.
But that is when ‘Philosopher Eric’ decided to rear his head, and open his mouth. “Television..
. yes, television,” he began as he rose from his seat in the studio and stripped off his microphone. “We call this ‘the beautiful game’ but how many people in this world don’t even own a television? What of them? “How do we serve this to them? To be truly beautiful, the game should be everywhere! It cannot be stuck on the wall or just in a bar, no!” And this is where it got really strange, as Cantona then started to flap his arms like a bird - perhaps harking back to his infamous ‘Seagulls’ speech .
“It must fly,” he continued, with the air of a Shakespearean madman. Like King Lear after he lost his marbles. “And, my friends, no one - no one! - should believe the Premier League is out of their league.
“This marks the beginning,” he said, hushing to a whisper as he addressed the camera. “The revolution has begun!” He then walked off the set, leaving presenter Julia Stuart to shrug her shoulders and ask: “What do I do?” It certainly made for great TV, with fans left to think that Cantona had, well, ‘done a Cantona’ again and wreaked havoc on the show. Unfortunately, though, it was a set up, a ruse, a folly - subterfuge to promote the new streaming platform that is putting Premier League coverage into millions of pockets across Africa as part of a new broadcast deal.
It was a very good prank though, with plenty of fans fooled into thinking it was real. Of course, when The King is involved, ‘anything is possible’..
