Riddle of Cantona 'seagulls' is solved

Finally, the mystery behind football's most baffling one-liner has been solved.

Eric Cantona's famously unfathomable musing on seagulls, sardines and trawlers was not a witty intellectual twist on obscure French philosophy.

Instead, it was cooked up in a Croydon hotel room by a motley crew, including Manchester United's security chief Michael "Ned" Kelly who reveals all in his autobiography, Manchester United: The Untold Story.

At a press conference after his conviction for a kung-fu kick on a Crystal Palace fan, Cantona declared: "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. Thank you."

But in The Times today, Mr Kelly says he was in a hotel in Croydon when Cantona's agent, Jean-Jacques Bertrand, asked: "Ned, what do you call a fishing boat in England?"

Puzzled, Mr Kelly replied: "A trawler." After briefly consulting his star client in French, the agent turned to Mr Kelly again, asking: "What do you call the small fish in the sea?"

Mr Kelly writes: "I was intrigued now, but thought carefully and said 'sardines'."

Mr Kelly added: "I felt proud I had contributed to the translation for perhaps the most famous footballing quote since Ken Wolstenholme said: 'They think it's all over... it is now.'"

And to think it could so easily have been whitebait instead.