Manchester United icon Eric Cantona has revealed that his former club turned down his offer to become their "president of football" last year.
The maverick Frenchman put forward the idea of returning to Old Trafford to advise on footballing matters.
In an interview with The Athletic, Cantona explained how he suggested United alter their off-field structure. He said:
"Ed Woodward [the club's former executive vice-chairman, who left his position in February this year] is great at marketing but not great at football. United 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."
It seems that United weren't overly receptive to Cantona's proposal, though. The 56-year-old continued:
"But they did not want me to be the president [of football] 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."
'President Cantona' certainly has a nice ring to it. What would his first order of business have been? Mandatory turned-up collars for all players? Lessons in how to confuse the media with bizarre analogies?
It's an almighty shame we won't get to find out (well, at least for now...).
