Cantona: United remain city's No1 team

Eric Cantona will return to Old Trafford for Paul Scholes' testimonial tomorrow (GETTY IMAGES)

Eric Cantona voiced doubts about what he perceives as Manchester City's attempts to buy their way to greatness last night, suggesting that those highly paid players who have declared they do not like life in Manchester have overlooked the fact that they are in the city to play football.

Cantona came to love Manchester without opulence. He initially set up home in the Manchester West Novotel in Worsley Brow, and then in the residential village of Boothstown, near Wigan. But he insisted last night that the distaste for Manchester expressed by Carlos Tevez – who will now miss Sunday's Community Shield as he will not arrive back at City until Monday – and the former Internazionale striker Mario Balotelli was alien to him.

"It depends on where they come from and why they come," Cantona said. "If they come from Milan maybe... I don't want to name cities. But the most important thing for me was to play for the best club in the world with some of the best players in the world. That's the most important thing when you're a professional player."

Cantona, who never lost to City in a United shirt, also insisted that United would retain their position as the pre-eminent side in the city because success could only be developed incrementally. "I don't know how they [City] work – maybe they work on the academy – but today they want to spend to build a team, to buy players. They've been successful because they won the FA Cup, but if they only do that they will not be as strong as United because United are working for the long-term by bringing through young talent."

The player, now 45, who bestrode Old Trafford for five and a half years from 1992, will return for the first time in a professional competitive capacity tomorrow night for Paul Scholes' testimonial, when the newly established New York Cosmos side he is helping develop become the first American side to play at the stadium.

Cantona, whose Cosmos side will include guests Gary Neville, Sol Campbell, Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires, Nicky Butt, Dwight Yorke and Robbie Keane, wants to build through youth like Sir Alex Ferguson. "Every time a player leaves we think the club can't win any more and they still win things because they are strong as an academy," he said. "They have a great history so any player can be replaced. Paul is still a great player but I left, Ronaldo left, Hughes left, and United are still one of the best clubs in the world."