IN THE end the man Manchester United supporters regarded as a god did not bother to hang around in the twilight. Once Eric Cantona had decided to call it a day, that was that: fini.

Cantona has kept faith with his pledge to finish his playing career at Old Trafford. True, he has ended it with a year of his contract still to run, but yesterday's announcement was not entirely surprising.

In recent weeks, indeed for much of the season, the Frenchman's body language has thrown out hints that his days at Manchester United might be numbered. His contribution to the team's fourth championship in five years has been valuable but not invaluable. He finished the season looking broody.

Not for the first time, Cantona has failed to make an impact in the more demanding Champions' League commensurate with his performance in the domestic competitions. France decided to dispense with his services after they had failed to qualify for the last World Cup.

Even Alex Ferguson was moved to admit, after United had won a crucial game 2-1 at Arsenal in February, that Cantona's presence was no longer quite so critical to their success. That night, with Cantona serving a two match ban David Beckham was Manchester United's inspiration. But now Ferguson must surely go for Juninho.

Cantona will be 31 on Saturday, although age will have had little bearing on his decision to stop playing. He could have gone on for at least another five years without compromising his standards.

Yet it is probably better this way. Nothing has quite become the footballing career of Eric Cantona as his leaving of it, with the esteem in which he has been held by Old Trafford fans for the last five years intact and his place in English football history secure for most of the right reasons.

Even the principal exception, the two footed Kung Fu kick at an abusive Crystal Palace supporter after he had been sent off at Sethurst Park in January 1995, for which he received an eight month suspension, led to Cantona enhancing his standing in the game when he returned to action for United obviously contrite but a more effective player than ever.

The understanding which Cantona struck up with Mark Hughes and Ryan Giggs when he joined Manchester United in 1992 was crucial to the championship success in 1993 which set in train events at Old Trafford that have yet to discover their ultimate destiny. Depicting Cantona in a scene from the Resurrection, as one artist has just done, may be hyperbole gone mad, but at least in football terms the Frenchman has at times worn the messianic mantle.

This partly explains his popularity with the Old Trafford fans, and the period of mourning which must inevitably follow news of his departure. He has been one of the most gifted footballers to appear in a Manchester United shirt.

Yet when one has paid tribute to Cantona's exceptional technique, the spectacular goals he has scored, the penalties safely put away, and the finely angled passes played from positions opponents had overlooked, there has to be something else besides. United supporters have not worn number seven shirts bearing the name of Cantona while bellowing their version of the Marseillaise just because he has been a good player.

One suspects that what really appealed to them was Eric's hauteur, the studied aloofness which became a statement of Manchester United's superiority. Even when Cantona had a quiet game he was hard to miss, a disdainful figure, collar turned up, looking down a long Gallic nose on the world at large.

Cantona has never said much in public, but a year ago, shortly before his winning goal against Liverpool at Wembley completed Manchester United's second Double in three years, he gave BBC Grandstand a hint about his future. "I will stay at old Trafford for two more years," he said, "maybe longer or maybe shorter. We never know in life."

Well, we know now.