Cantona was a player whose talent and ego, combined with the indulgence of others, produced something that was part angel and part demon. He was probably the first real rock star that the Premiership and satellite TV ever produced. Like many before him, he fundamentally misunderstood the importance of his role. This is not to say that he wasn't a genius. Earlier that year he and Peter Schmeichel had combined their talents to achieve five 1-0 premiership victories in two months, which ultimately led to United overhauling Newcastle on the way to winning the title.

Being what he was, he inevitably misunderstood both the difficulty and the importance of being a so-called water carrier.

Deschamps is hardly unique in being dismissed in this fashion. Claude Makélélé was a pivotal part of Real Madrid's success in the three years he spent at the Bernabéu. But when he requested that he be paid a similar amount to Real's galacticos - Zidane, Figo, Raúl, and Ronaldo - the management derided both his importance and his abilities and shipped him off to Chelsea. What followed was instructive to say the least. Makélélé became a pivotal part of the West London club's rise to the top of the European game. For their part, Madrid spent millions trying to replace him. It didn't go well.

Rock star developers

In the software industry everyone always seems to be looking for rock stars. You see it in far too many job advertisements. It often gets lost in the array of idiotic adjectives that seem to attach themselves to tech job descriptions: gurus, ninjas, evangelists, etc...

The rock star is the worst of them. They myth goes that the rock star is talented to a supernatural degree. He or she will produce more and better code than a dozen mere mortals. Ordinary developers create complex solutions to simple problems; great developers create simple solutions to complex problems. Rock star coders supposedly go beyond that and just make your problems disappear. It's a myth, and a problematic one.

Obviously we are not talking about real rock stars. These rock stars don't sell records or play stadiums. They don't trash hotel rooms, or drive their gold-plated Rolls Royces into Les Paul shaped swimming pools. But they have the attitude, the ego, and the monstrous self-entitlement, and that is the problem.

Rock stars don't make your team better. On the contrary, they will inevitably make your team worse. This is because they don't understand the value of water carriers.

The problem with clichés

The real problem with clichés is that they are true, so true that they become dull and trivial, and it's a cliché that it takes a team to win. Rock stars often don't get that. In their world the rest of team are either there to make them look good, or else they are just along for the ride. I should know, because I used to be one.

I entered the graphic design industry in 1987, a time when Apple Macintoshes were wreaking havoc on the industry while transforming it into something entirely new. Those like myself, who excelled with both software and hardware found themselves in huge demand. We became as much prized for our IT skills as for our design or artwork chops.

This brave new world brought prestige clients, management roles, and consultancy work. But for me, it also nurtured an ego that eventually spun out of control.

When I started out I was determined to be the best I could be. After a few years I ended up being more concerned with making sure everyone knew how good I was. Your ego is a trap. It makes you blind to your mistakes, a pain to your colleagues, and a nightmare to manage.

The worst thing was that my unprofessional behaviour was often encouraged by many of those around me, because there is a horrible tendency for people in all industries to indulge talent.

What eventually cured me of this nonsense was starting my own company. Management and fellow workers might indulge your ego, but your clients will not. They simply walk away when confronted with unprofessional behaviour.

The other side of this coin is that when you start your own company you end up having to do all of the mundane things that you simply took for granted before. Ordering supplies, chasing invoices, book-keeping, etc..

In other words, you start carrying water.

You cannot replace talent

So managers will always have this dilemma. There is no replacement for talent. There are no substitutes for skills, intelligence and experience. But talent can bring baggage, and every manager eventually has to weigh up someone's ability against their more negative attributes.

Rock star employees are assets and liabilities at the same time. However, the downsides are enormous if they are not managed properly, while their attitude makes them singularly difficult to manage.

They will upset your other staff. Moreover, they will not recognise or admit to their own mistakes. Worst of all, they can undermine you in ways you never dreamed possible.

So why hire them at all? The answer to that is simple. Don't.

Talent and ego do not go hand in hand. The Dunning-Kruger effect is ample proof of that. Yes, there are amazing developers out there with egos to match. But the reverse is also true. There are plenty of people who are brilliant at their job but don't feel the need to shove it in everyone else's face.

Which brings us back to Eric Cantona. A player who ultimately failed at the highest level because he never understood that for a team to win, the artist needs the water carrier just as much as the water carrier needs him.