PAUL SCHOLES HAS picked three Manchester City players as the best the Premier League has to offer.
The Manchester United legend is unimpressed by the lack of talent in England, claiming Spain, Germany and Italy can all boast better players and cited these reasons as to why his interest in the top flight has waned.
Scholes feels Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, formerly of Chelsea, and David Silva are the star attractions in the Premier League, opting against picking one of his former club’s players.
“The Spanish league’s the best by far if you’re judging on the European competitions,” Scholes says, in an extract from a new book serialised in the Guardian. “In the quarter-finals of the Champions League and the Europa League in 2015–16, they had six of the 16 teams. Nearly half of them. The Premier League had just two.
“There needs to be a real step up in quality in England. Other than Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva, we don’t have the best players. All the best players are in other countries.
“The best players are in Spain or at Bayern Munich and Juventus. We’re linked with big players – Gareth Bale is a top player – but we don’t get them now. Not anymore. You never see a Lionel Messi coming over here, you never see a Neymar in the Premier League.”
Scholes is heavily involved in non-league outfit Salford City, along with fellow ‘Class of ’92′ alumni Nicky Butt, Phil Neville, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, and finds himself more attracted to football not dominated by “money and sponsorship”.
He continues: “The money’s the most important thing these days about football because owners, the majority of them, are just interested in making money for their football club. They don’t care what they see on a Saturday afternoon on the pitch. They’re purely businessmen, whereas at Barcelona you have a balance between business and football.
“Obviously, they have to make money for the club’s sake, but it’s a club that is a cooperative owned by the fans, not by one businessman or a group of individuals. So they want to make it pay, but making as much money as they can isn’t the primary objective. It’s entertainment. Winning the Champions League, winning the best prizes. That’s why they have the best players. And why clubs like that are the best teams.”
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