Cantona interview: Sept 96

Will the tactics change?
Tactics?

Yeah. Tactically, for the last few seasons in Europe it hasn’t worked for Manchester United.
United have won the Cup Winners’ Cup five years ago. Arsenal won it too and reached another final. Maybe that’s not good enough for English football, but which country in Europe has won two Cup Winners’ Cups in the past few years? The French haven’t done better in all their history. But the French think they’ve got everything and that they know everything and they want to teach everyone about football, even me. I listen to them because I am polite…

But it’s true that the last few seasons haven’t been good in Europe [for United]…
This season will be different. In England, the Premiership is so important. I think in the past it has been the priority, but this season we want to win the European Cup and the Premiership. Everybody at Manchester United wants to win the European Cup. We want to prove in Europe what we have achieved in England over the last few years. We want to be famous all around the world, not only in our country. Although the Premiership is watched all over the world and Manchester United is the biggest club, we want to win the European Cup. If we won that, who could question us?

So you don’t want to talk about why we haven’t done well in Europe over the past three seasons?
We had a great team but we had seven foreigners and could only play five, and we had a few injuries and suspensions. But this season we have a big squad and the foreigner rule no longer exists. We have no excuses. If we don’t win it, it’s because we’re not good enough. But I think we are good enough and everybody has got the ambition to win. It’s important for the