Eric Cantona is back wowing fans in Manchester with his mysterious, compelling and bonkers performance… if only Man United could turn to him now

He wore a pair of red trousers, with an unfeasibly large pair of very red boots to match, a crisp white cotton shirt and a long black raincoat and he sang of lost love, lost friends, injustice, vampires and red snakes in water.

There were not really melodies and neither, in all honesty, notes, but there was much of that poetry and philosophy that Manchester always loved about him — all of it contained in the small, unfussy livre de chanson (‘songbook’) for an evening called Cantona Sings Eric.

Man United legend Eric Cantona wowed an adoring crowd at the Stoller Hall in Manchester

The Frenchman is idolised at Old Trafford for his transformative impact on the Red Devils

It’s hard to imagine any former footballer other than Cantona carrying off what then ensued

It depends who is manager, Jason, their companion, thought. ‘The manager has to see the need to let a player like Cantona be himself and that’s what Ferguson did. It could have been disastrous under a lesser manager and I ask how Ten Hag would cope with a personality like Eric’s. It was easier 30 years ago than now.’

The individual in question certainly contributed to a yearning for that beautiful possibility. ‘How are you, friends?’ Cantona asked, after concluding the particularly mournful number Let’s Hope (That All Goes Back to Normal). ‘I know you… and you and you,’ he added, looking out at the sea of faces. ‘I know you all and I love you all.’

No-one was holding back at either side of the stage when Cantona prepared to say farewell

That was as good as the conversation got. As always, Cantona was a man of few words, though indicating that he would be moving ‘from one theatre of dreams to another’ — his way of linking songs My Lovely Dream and Where Love Is Hanging Out, whose meanings were extremely unclear — went down very well.