Peter Schmeichel believes Eric Cantona saved Sir Alex Ferguson's career at Manchester United.
Cantona will always be remembered as the catalyst who brought United's 26-year wait for the title to an end. But Schmeichel reckons the Frenchman also reinvented Ferguson's football philosophy.
"When Eric came and we won the title in 1993, the manager below suddenly grasped that the only way forward for United was to allow his players to fully express themselves.
"We were very close to winning it the previous year, but we faltered in the last two weeks of the season. The excuse everyone offered was that we ran out if steam, but what really happened was that we froze when the title was in our grasp.
"Eric had the talent and the belief to express himself at the most important times. The next season we all looked at what he was doing and we were inspired - and so was Alex Ferguson.
"Players like Rooney and Ronaldo are at Old Trafford now because Cantona was there first. That is Eric's legacy."
Schmeichel added: "I remember Cantona's first training session at United. He came into the Cliff, introduced himself to everybody and then went out on his own before anybody else and started to practise with the ball.
"The rest of us just sat there in disbelief. We had never seen anything like it. But the next day, there was Ryan Giggs out there doing the same thing and suddenly most of the players were copying Eric's example.
"That's why lads like Beckham, Scholes, Butt and the Nevilles came through at United. They saw Cantona's dedication and they copied him."
