Sports Letters: The verdict on Eric Cantona

From Mr P Collins Sir: Eric Cantona's spectacular kung-fu style attack on a provocative Palace supporter, though shocking and to many people barbaric, will probably and ironically be the making of a living genius of the ball.

Cantona, like other artistic geniuses is, and always will be, a highly volatile character whilst performing magical delights with the ball; with it will occasionally come moments of self-destructive recklessness. It is this volatile spark that makes him the magician he is.

I can only hope that Cantona's current separation from the "beautiful game'' will not end in divorce. There is, and always will be, a place for the flawed artistic geniuses of this world: the legend of their skills is as immortal as we are mortal.

Yours faithfully, PETER COLLINS Sunbury-on-Thames Middlesex