Eric Cantona reveals new talks with Man United about taking a job under Sir Jim Ratcliffe's regime, speaks on THAT kung-fu kick... and fears the club could 'lose its soul' if one plan goes ahead

Eric Cantona is talking about goats. Not GOATs. Goats. Specifically, the pet goat that has been keeping him company recently. The one he was seen walking on a London street. The one in the photo with Cantona that appeared on a flag at Glastonbury.

So what’s the goat all about? ‘It’s a secret,’ he says cryptically. ‘I’ve got plenty of secrets. I’m full of secrets, including the secrets for myself.’

More of the secret later.

Is it a good goat? ‘Oh wonderful. Wonderful. I love it and it loves me. We have a great relationship. So close yes.’

This isn’t how I envisaged an interview with the Manchester United icon going. Nearly 30 years on from his famous comment about seagulls and trawlers, Cantona is as enigmatic as ever.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe was so taken with the words uttered by his favourite United player that he called the holding company set up to invest £1.3billion in the club Trawlers Ltd.

That made Cantona smile. ‘Yeah, of course,’ he says. ‘It’s an honour for me. You can tell the sense of humour he has. How can I say, like working hard but with an enjoyment of doing things.

‘I think Manchester United now with Jim Ratcliffe, they try to rebuild the foundations of the club. I think in the near future they will come back at their best.

‘For sure, it’s the right decision to have Jim Ratcliffe and his team in charge of sports at Manchester United.

‘We speak a lot about players and managers, but sometimes we minimise the importance of the chairmen and the people who are really in charge of the club.

‘You can see with Chelsea since Abramovich left, it’s not the same club. It’s very very important today Manchester United have somebody like Ratcliffe in charge of the club in a sports way.’

Which begs the question, has Ratcliffe or anyone from Ineos approached Cantona about a role in the new set-up?

There is a pause while he considers his answer. ‘Yes,’ confirms the 58-year-old. ‘I don’t know, I have to think about it. But, for sure, if I do something it is something that can really help the club.

‘You know, it’s not being an ambassador. Really involved. Of course, I don’t want to be a manager. But I have to think about it, and he has to think about it.

‘We think about maybe something. Or maybe not. Maybe (singing). Maybe yes, maybe no. Maybe yes, maybe no. It’s all about maybe. Maybe I will be alive tomorrow. Maybe I will be dead. Maybe the goat could have a role. Maybe the goat will inspire us.’

Here we go again. Cantona back on the trawler with the sardines and the seagulls overhead.

Seriously, did he plan to say that when he sat down beside United’s lawyer Maurice Watkins in 1995 to face the press following an appeal hearing at Croydon Magistrates’ Court for his kung-fu kick on Crystal Palace fan Matthew Simmons?

‘No no. I just did it at the time because I didn’t want to speak to the press, and the lawyer from Manchester United said to me, “yes you have to say something”. So I said something so everybody was happy and I left. I could have said something else.

‘The most important thing was not what I said but why I said it. Without any kind of meaning. I could have said, “I’m on the roof, I’m walking on the clouds and I see the light crossing my heart”.

‘I say that to you because I can see the roof of the building where I am, I can see the clouds and I can see the light of the sun, and I can feel my heart because I am in love with Manchester United as always.’

It’s 27 years since Cantona made an abrupt exit from Old Trafford but he still loves United just as much as United love the charismatic Frenchman who was a catalyst for the unprecedented era of success under Sir Alex Ferguson. In five years at the club, he won four Premier League titles and the FA Cup twice.

United haven’t come close to winning the title again since Ferguson retired 11 years ago, but Cantona feels the wait could soon be coming to an end under Ratcliffe.

‘What is interesting in the Premier League and why it is watched everywhere in the world is that so many clubs can win the league, you know. It’s so difficult to win the league.

‘A big club like Manchester United … you can see Liverpool waited 30 years to win the league again. In these 30 years, they won two Champions Leagues and one UEFA Cup, so you can tell how difficult it is to win the league.

‘We all hope as fans of Manchester United that they can win the league in the near future, but maybe it will take two or three years.

‘The most important thing is to recreate something. I remember in my time, when the players knew everybody. We said good morning to everybody. I think it’s very important that people all work together as human beings and all the energy between the people are in the same room, for the same goal.

‘It’s not only about the manager and players. I think the club is a big family and we have to respect everybody and take care of everybody and everybody should realise how important it is to work for this club for the same goal, winning trophies, big trophies.’

If Cantona had his way, it would all happen inside Old Trafford just the way it is. No new stadium. No Wembley of the North, as Ratcliffe pictures it. For Cantona, the old place is just precious to pull down.

‘No, never,’ he says. ‘I think the stadium is very important. I remember the first day I came to Manchester United, I could feel the ghosts of the club, of the players, and everything. The energy of the club. The history. It’s a heritage. You can feel the soul of the club, you can feel the energy of the past strongly. It’s very important.

‘I cannot imagine Manchester United without Old Trafford. I cannot imagine Liverpool without Anfield or Real Madrid without the Santiago Bernabeu. I think some clubs change their stadiums and lose their soul, like Arsenal for example. When they left Highbury, they lost the soul of this club.’

Ah, the memories. The nostalgia. Which brings us back to Cantona’s little secret and the story behind the goat.

It is part of the relaunch of the Ford Capri as an EV 38 years after the company’s iconic model was discontinued. One of the Premier League’s greatest of all time celebrating the return of Ford’s GOAT.

‘Sometimes I like the feeling of nostalgia,’ says Cantona. ‘I really love the Capri from the 70s. I love it. They re-invented it, they were inspired by it. The new one is very modern of course, all electric. I think it is very important for the planet and the new generations of people.

‘I like the feeling of nostalgia but I think I can also feel the soul of the Capri from the 70s in the new one.

‘Like me, I was a footballer and then acting and singing or whatever. Different things, evolutions, in time are the same soul.’ Beguiling as ever, Cantona is off again.