Cantona the Red planning a ‘revolutionary’ return

ERIC CANTONA has not ruled out a “revolutionary” return to football, but only to coach a big team such as Manchester United, the club that turned him into a star.

“It will be a team like Manchester,” Cantona said in an interview to be published tomorrow.

Typically wrong-footing the footballing establishment, Cantona broke a long silence to talk to cultural weekly Les Inrockuptibles, one of the most elitist publications in France.

“I have a certain idea on the game and I will only become a coach if I can bring my vision, if I feel that the game can evolve,” he said. “Obviously, it would be revolutionary, even though I can mess up big time. To do it I need great players and great players are in a club like Manchester (United),” the Frenchman said.

“I left Manchester because I had lost my passion for the game, because I did not master the merchandising side. Because I did not want to become a product,” he said. “At one stage, what mattered was the Cantona product, the profit. And then I had to go.”

Kicked out of the national team France manager Aime Jacquet in 1995, Cantona said he had no regrets about missing out on his country’s World Cup win in 1998.

“I would have liked to play it. But my non-selection was obviously linked to my personality. You could give me 10 World Cups wins but it would not make me happy if it meant contradicting myself,” he said.

The former international striker repeated his love of England, “the only country” in which he could have played.

“I’m not proud to be French. By contrast, when we played the Cup final with Manchester (United), I cried when I heard a national anthem. It was not the French anthem but God Save the Queen. Sung by a whole crowd, it’s heartbreaking,” he said.

But he also has a soft spot for his hometown club, Olympique Marseille. “In the clash between heart and reason, heart wins,” he said. “In spite of everything that happened, when I hear that Marseille have lost, it moves me to tears while everything I hate about sport is there,” he said.

Teddy Sheringham signed for Portsmouth yesterday and revealed it was the ‘lure of the Premiership’ which made him opt for life on the south coast next season. The 37-year-old striker signed a one-year deal after being released by Tottenham and became Harry Redknapp’s fourth arrival of the summer.

“I had a very nice offer from a First Division club and I was very tempted because I was very impressed with them,” said Sheringham. “But it was the lure of playing in the Premiership which brought me here. I can see us looking beyond relegation and I wouldn’t be coming here to be playing in a relegation dogfight.”