Cantona is concerned about the game

With his bushy beard and impassioned rhetoric, Eric Cantona makes a convincing revolutionary. The charismatic Frenchman was in London, spreading word about the need for more artistry in football, even recruiting Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo to his campaign for flair.

Before meeting up with the modern generation of Manchester United’s dream-weavers, Cantona paused in the library of an elegant Covent Garden hotel, sipping mineral water, and enthusing about everyone from Johan Cruyff to Jose Mourinho, Diego Maradona to Ronaldinho. Artists all.

Turning serious, he also voiced deep concerns for the sport he once graced, beginning with Otto Rehhagel’s well-drilled Greek team who won Euro 2004. “Greece had a kind of heart and a kind of soul but not the heart and soul I like,” said Cantona.

“Their manager is passionate about his (4-5-1) system. I don’t like this kind of system. Brazil have the heart and soul. Brazil have everything. They are very passionate, and skilful. When they give a ball to someone, it’s like a gift.

“Great players do that. Like Cruyff. He was a real artist. He created things on the pitch. He participated in the revolution of football in the Seventies with Ajax, not only as a player, but he was very involved with the [total football] system. Even at 20, he had a lot of ideas. Cruyff was a real visionary.

“You cannot be a great player without being intelligent. You need to be very quick to read the runs of teammates. In one second, you have to imagine a lot of possibilities and decide immediately. It’s like geometry in your head.

“Sometimes, there are 60,000 people in the stand and you give a good ball to somebody to score and nobody could see the ball.

“Why? Because you have something special and can read things nobody else could. Maradona was like Kasparov. He could see 10 moves ahead. Platini was like a chess player. So was Cruyff. So is Zinedine Zidane. It is about creativity. I don’t like people who say: ‘I paint so I am an artist’. You are an artist if you create something. Mourinho is an artist. Not on his [tactical] system, but the way he drives the team. He creates things.

“Mourinho manages Chelsea who have great players, lots of money, so all the players are under pressure. So he speaks a lot, provokes the media, other players and managers, and all the media speak about him. They all forget the players. Nobody speaks about the players, so the players can play without pressure.

“That’s deliberate. The media help Chelsea to win. Speak about the players! Try to put the pressure on the players and I am sure there will be a lot of difference. Alex Ferguson only does it [make provocative comments] sometimes when they lose. But with Mourinho, it is every day, every week.