You Can’t Win Anything with Kids: Eric Cantona & Manchester United’s 1995-96 Season

The 1995-96 season would see the birth of the greatest football team Britain has ever seen but it began with a crisis at Old Trafford and rebellion within the ranks of supporters. The Manchester United behemoth had stirred in 1993 to win the title their fans craved and they retained it a year later playing dynamic counter-attacking football. Yet by August 1995 fans were calling for manager Alex Ferguson’s resignation following the sales of Mark Hughes, Paul Ince and Andrei Kanchelskis. A defeat at Aston Villa in their first league game of the season prompted former Liverpool player Alan Hansen’s to utter the immortal words You can’t win anything with kids and he was not the only one to dismiss a title challenge for Ferguson’s men. With Eric Cantona still suspended following his attack on a Crystal Palace fan earlier in the year and Newcastle storming into a 10 point lead, United’s young team looked anything but champions. Yet by season’s end Hansen was left looking shame-faced as United powered to their second League and Cup double in three seasons, overcoming nation’s sweethearts Newcastle in the league and Liverpool’s over-hyped youngsters in the FA Cup final. Four seasons later the same players would win an unprecedented treble to underline their status as the finest English club team of all time. Wayne Barton recalls the twists and turns of a season that saw controversy, mind games, television outbursts, divine interventions and the return of a legend.