Eric Cantona once suggested France manager Henri Michel was ‘a bag of s***’ for which got him a year long ban from playing for his country but their loss was the Premier League and Man United’s gain

This summer saw numerous England starlets rise through the ranks to play regular international football. However, they may want to avoid making the mistakes of the internationals who stood before them if they want to continue their success.

One player whose mistakes stopped him from prolonging his international career, to say the least, was Eric Cantona.

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The Premier League and Manchester United legend was renowned for doing things his own way and always spoke his mind, which often came at a cost to his career. Moments such as kung fu kicking a Crystal Palace supporter and his colourful language in press conferences act as a 101 on how not to have a successful career for international debutants.

It wasn’t a surprise then that the prolific goal scorer launched a bitter attack on national television on the French team manager, the late Henri Michel, after the boss dropped Cantona from the national team in 1988 during the World Cup qualifiers.

The former forward did not stray from his usual demeanour, calling Michel ‘a bag of s***’.

The comment saw Cantona banned from playing for Les Bleus for a year.

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Luckily for Cantona, new manager Michel Platini, who took over in 1988, was quick to reinstate him. God knows they needed him.

On the pitch he could do no wrong, and his talent could sometimes pull him out of trouble, with teams relying on his goal scoring abilities. Despite his outlandish behaviour across the Channel, the forward went on to have a successful career in England, winning the Premier League four times with Man United who pinched him from Leeds in 1992.

“I played with him for two full seasons and we won a title both times, the first of them almost single-handedly down to him,” Gary Neville, who broke into the senior side during the Cantona era, said.

Fergie, one of his biggest fans, seems to agree. “It was his mere presence and his ability to make and score goals,” he said.

On the international stage, however, Cantona failed to win any international competition with France, only scoring twenty times for his country and facing multiple bans throughout his career.

England’s stars would probably do best to learn from his mistakes. So if Bukayo Saka and Jude Bellingham want to continue making appearances for The Three Lions, they might not want to call manager Gareth Southgate 'a bag of s***'.