The year is 1992 and Manchester United are facing a predicament. Having gifted the league title to their Yorkshire rivals Leeds United the previous season, Alex Ferguson and his ageing team are languishing at 8th on the table and are already out of two cup competitions. Much like Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United, circumstances were dire and the club was in desperate need of inspiration.

United were on an abysmal run of just two wins in 13 games, scoring a dismal nine goals in the process. Ferguson had failed to secure the signature of Alan Shearer, who joined Blackburn Rovers instead. Moreover, the club’s ostensible marquee signing, Ferguson’s second choice Dion Dublin was a long term absentee after breaking his leg in a clattering challenge from Crystal Palace’s “Ninja” Eric Young.

At some point in the middle of November, Leeds chairman Bill Fotherby had telephoned his Manchester counterpart Martin Edwards enquiring about the availability of defender Dennis Irwin. This phone call turned into sweet serendipity for Ferguson as what followed had a profound effect on United’s expected trajectory. After in no uncertain terms rejecting Fotherby’s proposal, Ferguson turned the tables on Fotherby by asking Edwards to pursue Eric Cantona, an instrumental figure in Leeds’ title winning side and a cult hero at Elland Road. As fate would have it, Fotherby, after checking in with Leeds manager Howard Wilkinson, called back with the news that a deal was possible.

So on November 26, 1992 the talismanic Frenchman joined Manchester United and won them their first league title since 1967 by a ten point margin. In his five seasons at Old Trafford, Cantona won four league titles and two FA Cups. Ferguson’s eccentric, and perhaps egotistical approach for the equally unorthodox Cantona proved to be the catalyst in United’s inexorable march towards eternal glory.