'I found Eric Cantona a good client,' says Maurice Watkins, Manchester United's solicitor, recalling last year's infamous karate kick which almost landed the player in jail.

'He was always responsive to advice and was a very easy person to deal with.'Such is the life of a solicitor and director of England's largest football club.

When 54-year-old Maurice Watkins is not defending players in magistrates' courts, he can be flying around the world tying up multi-million pound transfer deals.

Or, as was the case two weeks ago, in Brussels, representing the FA Premier League before the European Commission.'People say this job must be absolutely fantastic, but there have been times I've wished I was doing something else,' Mr Watkins says, remembering the pressure of times when the club was not doing so well.

And, showing an admirable grasp of the football clich -- , he adds: 'But at the end of the day, as a director, you have to stand up and be counted.'He qualified as a solicitor in 1966, after completing a law degree at University College London and articles with Manchester firm Skelton & Co.

He immediately left to join the in-house legal team at glass manufacturers Pilkington Brothers.

A few months later, he moved to the Co-operative Insurance Soci ety.He finally settled down in March 1968, when he joined James Chapman & Co in Manchester, becoming a partner soon after.

He has been there ever since, initially concentrating on private client, company/commercial and professional indemnity work.

He started to work for Manchester United in 1976, when James Chapman's senior partner, who had previously acted for the club, died suddenly.At that time, Mr Watkins said, there was not a great deal to do at the club, except for some property work and a few managerial sackings.

One of his first jobs was dealing with Tommy Docherty's departure.

But when the club had a rights issue in the late 1970s, and ordinary supporters took a stake in the club, things changed.

'For the first time, I realised how important the club was to its supporters,' he said.

He joined the board in 1984, on the same day as Sir Bobby Charlton.

Now, in his own words, Manchester United is 'a major entertainment organisation'.

The growth of football as a commercial enterprise has increasingly swallowed up his time as a lawyer and Mr Watkins describes the work as everything a lawyer would have to do for any public limited company, as the club is.

He is also personally involved in all transfer negotiations.But, while Mr Watkins has had less time to devote to his practice, there have been spin-offs for James Chapman & Co.

As well as representing the club, it acts for some players when there is no conflict of interest -- such as Eric Cantona -- and has been instructed by all the clubs whose grounds are being used in June's European Championships.

And, among others, Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton have turned out for its own football team.The firm, and Mr Watkins in particular, is now at the forefront of the English football establishment's response to the recent Bosman judgment of the European Court of Justice.

The court held that out-of-contract players can move for free to clubs in other member states.

The ruling also ended nationality restrictions on clubs fielding foreign players: the so-called three plus two rule.

The conventional view is that the ruling does not affect wholly domestic transfers, although some disagree (see [1996] Gazette, 17 January, 6).

Two weeks ago, Mr Watkins joined Rick Parry, chief executive of the FA Premier League, to present their view of the English transfer system's legality to the European Commission.

It is not clear whether the Commission was convinced.Mr Watkins says that some aspects of Bosman are still uncertain.

He has advocated a cautious response, especially as European football's governing body, UEFA, is refusing to accept the change to the three plus two rule despite threats from the Commission.

He notes that out-of-contract transfers only accounted for 10% (by value) of the transfers carried out in the Premier League last year.

But while Manchester United would be pleased to see the end of the three plus two rule, it does not want to see the end of the transfer system.

'Manchester United is a net buyer of players,' Mr Watkins says.

'So, looking at it selfishly, we would not be too bothered if there was no transfer system.

But we are happy with it.

We want to maintain the strength and standard of the professional game in this country as a whole, and not just at the top level.' The Bosman case has thrust Mr Watkins firmly back into the media spotlight that shone on him during Eric Cantona's various trials.

'I have a lot of hands-on involvement in high profile work,' he says.

'But the legal work has only recently taken on a high profile.' He is chairman of th e British Association of Sport and Law, which recently held a very well publicised meeting in conjunction with the Premier League to consider Bosman.Mr Watkins admits that he quite enjoys the raised profile: 'The Cantona case was a complete one-off and we decided that one person should deal with the media.

The only problem came before we had decided what to do.

It's difficult to appear in front of the media if you have nothing to say.'But the club's high media profile can have adverse consequences.

He believes that the punishment meted out by the magistrates in the Cantona case and by the Football Association after the Roy Keane stamping incident in last year's FA Cup semi-final, were examples of the personalities, and not the offences, being penalised: 'We have to make sure the punishment fits the crime.

An over-concentration on reacting to the media gets you into trouble.' Mr Watkins describes himself as a good supporter of Manchester United, rather than a fan: 'It's a useful distinction.

If we lose, I can sleep at night.' He certainly does not give the impression of being a fanatical follower and gets no kick from meeting football's famous personalities: 'I take people as I find them.

I can turn off from football.'He also confesses to having spent more time playing amateur football in the 1960s for his team, Old Mancunions, than standing on the Stretford End, watching George Best.

'When I joined the board and we had just drawn a game,' he recalls, 'I don't think the other directors took too kindly to me saying that Old Mancunions would have been happy with the result.'