It's almost 32 years since Cantona strode, chest out, into Old Trafford and catapulted United into a new golden era. Now, in 2024, we're at the start of another new age – following Ratcliffe's arrival and subsequent changes to the club's operations – but, still, Eric remains very much the template for United players to follow.

As Sir Jim said in that introductory interview: "There's a certain type of player... when he gets the ball, you get excited because you're not sure what he's going to do with it – it might be a bit of magic. Eric was one of those.

"He was so transformative for that Manchester United team and Alex Ferguson. They hadn't won the league for 25 or 26 years before Eric arrived. Then Eric arrived and he was the catalyst that really galvanised the team for the next 25 years."

This week, as our new home kit for 2024/25 is announced, we're talking about those Reds that have managed to 'Own The Stage'; the ones whose bravery, talent, confidence and defiance have inspired millions. And while other players might have racked up more medals, played for longer, or boasted more technical dazzle, for many, Eric remains the ultimate embodiment of the Manchester United spirit.

United were a fine team when Cantona arrived in November '92, but that first top-flight title since 1967 remained elusive.

By the following May, that was no longer the case, largely due to Eric's influence, and confidence. With collar propped up, and his oozing vision and intelligence begging for a worthy platform, Eric instantly knitted together the fulsome, but sometimes disparate, qualities already present in United's team.

Giggs, Hughes, Ince and Kanchelskis and many others were individual wonders, but Cantona was the man that split the chrysalis, who architectured a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

He quickly became an adopted Mancunian legend, to the horror of arch-enemies Leeds United, who had sold him to Alex Ferguson for (relative) peanuts, amid uneasy whispers about his eccentricities and discliplinary problems.

It was the start of the Premier League era, and United had never had a French player before. Even footballers from mainland Europe were a novelty at the time. There was an element of mysteriousness to Eric, and some pushback from fans, given he had helped Leeds to the title the year before. Liverpool great Emlyn Hughes labelled him a 'flashy foreigner' in the Daily Mirror, writing: "Don't look for him to get in there when it hurts, or to decide a game and be a matchwinner."

But in Manchester, a city famed for its embrace of immigrants and independent spirit, those eccentricities and exoticisms were seen as a strength. Cantona was otherworldly and ordinary in equal measure – the perfect blend for a place that lionises both Burgess and Bonehead.

On the pitch, his decision-making could seem extra-terrestrial; off it, he cited doomed French poet Arthur Rimbaud as one of his heroes. But he wasn't a remote, pretentious figure – far from it. He drank in local pubs, and lived in a modest house in Worsley, Salford. He had a more than healthy disregard for the authorities, something that chimed with the Manchester public of the time.

There were problems, of course. Cantona was PFA Player of the Year in 1993/94, after helping United win our first Double, but the infamous 'kung-fu' kick of January 1995 created a national furore which still burbles away even now.

Cantona was banned for nine months, and came close to leaving. Alex Ferguson had to embark on a daring Harley-Davidson motorbike ride through the streets of Paris to find Eric and convince him to stay.

The manner in which he returned to the team, during the 1995/96 season, has become the stuff of footballing legend, and slid seamlessly into United's long history of improbable, inspirational comebacks.

Twelve points behind Newcastle around Christmas 1995, Cantona slowly eased through the gears, powering United back into contention via a springtime run of 1-0 wins in which he was the only goalscorer. The most famous of those victories came at St James' Park, where Newcastle terrorised United's penalty area for the first 45, but couldn't find a way past the magnificent Peter Schmeichel. In the second half, Le Roi came in for the kill.

The title was secured on the final day at Middlesbrough and, if that turnaround wasn't epic enough, Cantona then decided the FA Cup final against Liverpool, with a contorted volley that no other player on the pitch could have conceived or executed.

The magic moment came in the 85th minute, delivering maximum pain to the Merseysiders. David Beckham swung a corner in from the right, David James failed to collect and the ball ricocheted off Ian Rush to Cantona. It was the Welsh goalscoring legend's last significant touch in a Liverpool shirt, in his final game for the club. Eric did the rest, and Emlyn Hughes didn't file a column that day.

It completed Cantona's incredible narrative arc, from national villain to complete inspiration. Not that United's fans had ever left their hero's side, though – they were down at Croydon Magistrates' Court when the Frenchman was charged with assaulting a xenophobic fan, and they were celebrating with him at the Riverside and Wembley when he led us to the Double Double a year later.

Eric's redemption story was incredible, but above all the plot lines and the drama was the way he carried himself, in sport and in life. The totally unique way he did things.

The balletic poise on the ball; the marvellous improvisations he made reality; the complete refusal to bow to intimidation and abuse and the nonsense that often surrounds football. The volleys, the flicks, the passes, the free-kicks; even some of the amazing goals he nearly pulled off are still talked about to this day! That 45-yard lob at Stamford Bridge; the chest, swivel and shot he crashed against the post against Everton, on the day OT remembered Sir Matt Busby...

He was completely certain of himself and his talent, and Old Trafford loved every inch of that certainty; the colour, the charisma, the ambition.

The Theatre of Dreams was his perfect stage for five glorious years, and his stage it remains: United fans still sing his name almost every week. It's why the club still involves him in things like launching our new home kit – because his connection with the club and Reds everywhere remains so close, so unique, so emotionally charged.

Achievements earn you respect, but Cantona didn't just achieve at United: he soared and transcended. And that's why you might find better Manchester United players in the club's history, but when it comes to love, no-one receives more than Eric.