The ManicaPost
RIO Ferdinand has poured cold water on the suggestion an English team could soon win the Champions League, admitting clubs like Real Madrid are way ahead.
Madrid booked their place in this year’s final on Wednesday night, beating city rivals Atletico over two legs to set up a showdown with Juventus.
England, meanwhile, had three sides reach the knockout stages but only Leicester could get to the quarter-finals, where they were beaten by Atletico Madrid.
Ferdinand admits that Premier League sides have been playing catch-up for some time: ‘All our English teams are way off this standard,’ he said.
‘Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Juventus. There’s a lot of money that’s come into the English game, but all the English teams seem to be in a transition. New managers, new teams.
‘Chelsea are the nearest, they have a real settled team and their first XI is a real, genuine first XI. I think Jose Mourinho is still searching for his first XI, he’s still not sure of a few players. This summer will be huge for them.’
Alongside him in the BT studio at the Vicente Calderon on Wednesday, Steve McManaman highlighted Ferdinand’s comments on ‘transition’.
‘I just feel like the English teams are in transition all the time,’ he noted. ‘This is Real Madrid’s seventh consecutive semi-final. It’s no surprise that Madrid, Bayern, Barcelona, Juve, they’re getting to the latter stages every single year.
‘They change a few little nuances every year. In England it’s “Oh we’ve had a bad season, let’s rip it up and start again.” We seem to be chasing all the time. We need a little bit of patience with the managers, we need to keep all of our better players.
‘The better players never leave here, or at Juve. When we get a star man in the Premier League – Chelsea and Eden Hazard, it’s “Real Madrid want him. “ Coutinho, oh “Barcelona want him”. They’re looking over their shoulders all the time.’
Despite failings in the Champions League, there could still be a European champion from the British isles as Manchester United look to secure the Europa League.
They lead Celta Vigo 1-0 going into Thursday’s semi-final second leg, and Ferdinand would rather they lifted a trophy than finished fourth.
‘If the end of the season comes and Manchester United have won the Europa League and they’re in the Champions League,’ he admitted, ‘I’d rather be in that camp than the one who finished fourth, because you’ve not got to qualify and you’ve got a medal.
‘In that sense, I’d rather be sitting where Manchester United are now. But they’ve still got a job to do. Then it’s the final, and that’s a one-off. We live in hope.’ -DAILY MAIL SPORT
