Eric Cantona has revealed that he offered Manchester United his services as their inaugural 'president of football' last year but was turned down by his former club.
The 56-year-old claimed he was prepared to return to Old Trafford in a hierarchical role and offer footballing advice at the top end of the business.
United have often been criticised for acting as a business rather than a football club, and their legendary former French forward believes change is needed in order to readdress the balance.
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“Last year, I proposed to the club to change their way,” Cantona told The Athletic. “Ed Woodward is great at marketing but not great at football. United should have a chairman and then they should have a president of marketing and then a president of football, who is in charge of all the decisions in football. So I proposed to them that I should be president of football.”
When asked if he had met Woodward prior to his exit from the club, Cantona continued: “I met him a few times. But they did not accept it! I still think me or somebody else, they should have somebody for football. It should be somebody from the club, who knows football and the club.
“Since [Sir Alex] Ferguson retired in 2013, the club doubled their revenue but didn’t win anything. So imagine if you succeed in football and also have great people in marketing, then instead of doubling the revenue, then you would treble it. But they do not understand that. The club spends a lot of money. But you have to spend it well.”
When asked if he thinks the time has come for the Glazer family to give up their ownership of the club, Cantona agreed that he'd like to see a meaningful fan ownership model in place.
He added: "Yes, maybe. I thought about something also. This club has on social media hundreds of thousands of fans. If they create an application today saying that 50 per cent of the club can be sold, then why should you have one person or two people who invest £500million? Instead, you can have hundreds of millions of people who spend 10 euros, 20 euros, 100 euros, 1,000 euros, and 50 per cent of the club is owned by the real fans of Manchester United.
“With social media now, you would do that like this.
“But they did not want me to be the president of the club! They did not want me! And the fans have to know that I went and travelled to Manchester to give them the opportunity to succeed in the next decades. And they did not want it.”
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