Eric Cantona - 'Cause Football Is An Art'

Ceks

An appreciation thread for two of the greatest footballers to have graced the premiership.

Bergkamp:



Cantona:



Bergkamp Vs Cantona anyone?

Psmith

Cantona

KeyserSoze

Le King of course.

Very suitable music choice for Bergkamp.

Younited.7

Cantona, won the premiership 4 times, including two doubles. That was in 5 years, lets not forget that he was banned when Blackburn won the title.

That is greatness personified.

Bergkamp had a massive impact at Arsenal, but throught my red tinted glasses i can only hail one king; Eric.

Don16

Both were magical footballers

Ceks

I think it could be called both ways. You go on an Arsenal forum and they'll call it the other way. Perhaps some neutrals could pass some judgement. It's certainly and interesting one.

August 2007: Bergkamp won 1st, 2nd, & 3rd in MotD's goal of the month..

gerrydaly

Five if you include Leeds. Apart from '95 (when we lost the title by a point), his team never finished lower than top.

Younited.7

That was a 1st division title - i don't think he played a massive part in that, correct me if i'm wrong.

Unbelievable record all the same, and as i said, he was banned for most of the season where Blackburn won the title.

He and Ferguson are Godfathers of the modern United team, he was the magical spark that begun our era of dominance. I can't help but think that we would never be where we are today without the big bang that was Eric Cantona.

Ceks

Bergkamp's record is also pretty impressive.

Premier League: 1998, 2002, 2004.
FA Cup: 1998, 2002, 2003, 2005.

Winning 2 doubles..

Don16

Why bother comparing them? What's it gonna achieve? Let's just appriciate the brilliance of each of them and be happy we were around to see them.

Fergies Formula

id have to agree, no denying our red tints

Younited.7

Over an 11 year period.

No doubting that he was great, but not quite The King.

For the record, Cantona scored 79 goals for us in 5 seasons, you can't add 5 of Bergkamps best seasons to equal that record. Only two of his best ended in Premiership titles, 4 of Cantonas ended in title wins.

Ixion

Cantona's medal haul is more impressive, including Leeds he won 5 titles in 6 years and the one he didn't win was because he was banned for half the season. He helped United retain the title twice, something that Bergkamp never achieved, and won 2 doubles in 3 seasons.

gerrydaly

No. You're right on both points. Just making the point that his team still finished top.

Younited.7

79 goals in 175 appearances for Cantona

And taking Bergkamps best 5 seasons...

75 goals in 180 appearances.

Not dissimilar, but there were sketchy periods in between for the non-flying Dutchman.

Younited.7

Both have a highlight reel that any player ever would be proud of.

Still, The King rules almighty.

Don16

Stats are a load of shit. You could put, say, Van Nistelrooy (who was an excellent player, don't get me wrong) up against those stats and he'd piss all over them, but it doesnt make him a better player.

Ceks

Admittedly Cantona's overall goal to game ratio is marginally better at a goal every 2.68 games. Bergkamp's is: 2.75. Not much in it.

Bergkamp carried on playing for Arsenal well after his prime. It's not really fair to just say that he had 11 seasons at Arsenal..

These two weren't just about their goals though. Both were simply brilliant footballers.

Younited.7

Please, you're pointing out the obvious.

As not many people can differentiate between them, i used stats to paint a picture, after giving my opinion on the matter.

It seemed to me, following from the thread title, that greatness was the matter at hand. And in terms of greatness, stats are very important.

Don16

Fair enough.

77

Bergkamp was named for the King

Eric became the King

Ceks

Shame the poor bugger wouldn't get on a plane.

Younited.7

But he is 3 years younger.

You are taking the stats from Bergkamps 5 best years out of 11, i am taking Cantonas from his 5 only years. I did this to favour Bergkamp, if you wanted to assess Bergkamps career totals for Arsenal then it would be a very different picture.

He had a more time to make an impact, it is relevant that he won less titles over a longer period of time. Everybody knows the limitations of statistics, but it is easy to doubt any form of data comparison, very easy. It doesn't mean they don't hold worth, people have been using Ronaldos to compare him and Best, there is a balance between subjective and objective that always needs to be found. Best lovers usually argue from the subject, Ronaldos (whatever is left of them) argue from the object - goals, goals and goals.

I could state 100 different reasons why the comparison is limited, i will state a few:

Different clubs

Different times

Etc etc

They were both brilliant footballers, but Cantona is the greatest footballer that the premiership has ever seen, and the best? Debatable.

Don16

Fair enough he was genuinely afraid, but do Arsenal fans ever think it a tad unprofessional?

77

Neither would Mr. T but it didn't stop him kicking ass

duffer

Cantona was more influential but Bergkamp was the better footballer (no shame in that, theres not many better than Bergkamp).

Anyway, this thread got me all nostalgic for my own favourite football artisan.



I fell privillaged having seen these players perform live and on the telly.

Alex

Cantona was the better of the two hands down

Ceks

The goals to game ratios were based on both players entire career, accept internationals. Where again, their stats are very similar.

Ixion

Zola reminds me of Ben Stiller.

Ceks

Not really, simply because it was obvious that he was genuinely afraid.

Still bloody pissed me off though!I always remember thinking I wish Bergkamp was here. Sometimes he made it to the away games by car and boat to be fair to him.