9. Graeme Souness Decided Against Signing Him For Liverpool
Before the trial at Sheffield Wednesday and ultimately signing for Leeds United, Cantona was actually offered to Liverpool at the end of 1991. With Cantonas days in Frances Division 1 by this point looking numbered, his club Auxerre were looking to ship the enigmatic talent out of the door. After Auxerre were knocked out of the 1991 UEFA Cup at the Second Round stage by Liverpool, the French national manager Michel Platini met with the Anfield clubs then-manager Graeme Souness to explore the possibility of Cantona moving to Liverpool. As it would happen, Souness said no. One of his reasons for this was call was that he didnt want to mess with the harmony of his dressing room. Fair enough. The other reason, though, well that was a little bit more surprising. Graeme Souness turned down the chance to have Eric Cantona sign for Liverpool partly down to being happy with his forward line at that time. A forward line that included Ronny Rosenthal, and one that would see Paul Stewart and Nigel Clough added to it. Granted, Ian Rush was still there at that point and Dean Saunders was also just about around (before being shortly sold to Aston Villa), but surely Souness must have looked back with regret on that decision at times over the years. Also, its pretty certain that a Manchester United icon like Eric Cantona would rather fans forget that he was offered to, and turned down by, arch rivals Liverpool.
