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Manchester United legend-turned-pundit Rio Ferdinand has said that the Premier League doesn't have any of the best players in the world anymore and English teams in the Champions League suffer because of it. Ferdinand appeared in three Champions League finals, winning it once in 2008 and the veteran defender thinks that the league had more stars back when he won the trophy.
"In those days we had teams that were conditioned to go into tournaments and go deep into tournaments," said Ferdinand. "I think back then the best players in the world, there were some in this country. At the moment, there aren't any."
Ferdinand made the comments on BT Sport. Photo: @MailSport | Twitter
Ferdinand has a point. When Manchester United lifted the trophy, they had a sublime front trio of Carlos Tevez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney along with the rock solid defensive pair of Nemanja Vidic and Ferdinand himself in front of goalkeeping legend Edwin Van Der Sar. That's a lot of star power. Chelsea were also one of the English teams in the Champions League that were well-equipped, with the likes of Didier Drogba, John Terry and Petr Cech lending their experience and nous to the cause.
Manchester United have definitely declined in quality since Moscow 2008. Photo: @UnitedTarrant | Twitter
Yet, since Chelsea won the trophy in 2012, English clubs have struggled in Europe's premier competition. The same season that Chelsea won the Champions League, England were top of UEFA's coefficient rankings. Since then, England has slid down to third behind Spain and Germany, and stand above Italy by only a narrow margin. If England's slide continues, they will find themselves losing that extra Champions League slot.
UEFA coefficient totals, 2011/12 and 2015/16. Photo: uefa.com
Is England's dramatic slide due to a lack of world-class players? The stats seem to say so. Per Squawka's performance rankings, only one Premier League player makes the top-ten of Europe's top five leagues this season. That player is Everton's Ross Barkley who wasn't even in the Champions League this year.
Whoscored's ratings tell the same story, although by their metric, Leicester City's Riyad Mahrez is the only player to make the cut and was also not in the Champions League this season.
However, stats aren't everything. The Premier League has some undoubted talent: Sergio Aguero, Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, Vincent Kompany and David De Gea just to name a few. All these players could walk into almost any team and start every game. They are undoubtedly world-class, so it can't be as simple as not having star players. Even Ferdinand admitted his admiration for Aguero.
"The last three or four years of my career in the Premier League, he was the hardest striker I played against," said Ferdinand. "---he's a devastating finisher when he's in front of goal and I think he could play in any team in the world and he'll do this, he'll score goals."
Sergio Aguero is most definitely a world-class player. Photo: @sKUNaguerofan | Twitter
There are a lot of theories as to why the Premier League struggles, and one of the biggest has to be the saturation of foreign players in English teams. According to Transfermarkt, the EPL has the highest percentage of foreign players at a whopping 68.8%. Comparatively, La Liga stands at 41.6%, the Bundesliga at 49.4%, and Serie A at 55.7%.
The influx of foreign players has made it hard for young British talent to come through the ranks, something that has affected England at both national and club level. For example, take this year's Champions League. In the first leg of the round of 16, there were only six English players fielded between Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal. Just six players out of 42 that could have been fielded.
In comparison, Barcelona by themselves have four that are regular starters. The same goes for Bayern Munich, and those are relatively low numbers for both clubs historically speaking. That's not to say that homegrown players are necessarily going to drive a team to glory, but it helps. Having a base of young kids who have grown up with the identity of the club and are part of a family helps the team's cohesiveness. It encourages a team-oriented mentality and it allows chemistry to blossom.
Barcelona's La Masia is the best academy in the world and it helps them to succeed on a regular basis. Photo: @FCBmasia | Twitter
Comparatively, English clubs are often just an expensively-assembled collection of parts. Some are there for money, some are there for personal glory, and others just know that as soon as the manager changes, they may be gone.
Rio may have a point about the quality of English teams, but while the Premier League doesn't have Ronaldo or Messi, there are still plenty of world stars in the EPL. At least, there are enough that that can't be held as an excuse.
The bigger problem is the lack of identity caused by the constant revolving door system of players and managers. Lutz Pfannenstiel, a scout at Hoffenheim, had a damning assessment of the English system for the BBC.
“When I am scouting, if there is a player who is just good, I will not make an offer for that player. Any player from another country has to be absolutely outstanding. We no longer see the point in taking a player we can maybe find at the same level in Germany."
It'll be interesting to see how Leicester City do in the Champions League next season. If they can keep their players, they have the belief and the talent to outdo their more famous brethren and hopefully spark a change in philosophy from the bigger clubs and their owners.
On the other hand, so long as they're making money, they probably don't care...and that's depressing.
(H/T The Daily Mail)
Follow me on Twitter @J_Hansen_89
