Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone has bemoaned the quality of the Premier League, saying Chelsea are ‘so far ahead’ of the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United.
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The Blues are ten points clear at the top of the table over nearest rivals Arsenal in second-place and speaking exclusively to Goal.com, Simeone says English football is in sore need of a ‘wake-up call’.
The Argentine also questioned why there were no teams in the quarterfinals of the Champions league: Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City were all knocked out in the last 16 whilst Liverpool didn’t even make it out of the group stages.
“I am surprised there are no English clubs left in the Champions League – English football has enormous potential with its footballers and also its financial clout,” he wrote on Goal.com.
“The fact that there is no English team left in the last eight of the Champions League or in the Europa League is a wake-up call for the Premier League to look at why it is that, despite their great economic power and with all the many great footballers playing in England, Chelsea are so far ahead of everyone else and why they have no teams left in Europe.”
Whilst Simeone conceded the Premier League had some of the world’s best players, he insisted that La Liga still had the world’s two best in Real Madrid and Barcelona.
And for this reason he celebrated the success his Atletico Madrid side were able to achieve last season by winning La Liga and overcoming the fearsome duo.
“So for us at Atletico, we are competing against two teams with the obligation of winning the Champions League. At the very least, Madrid and Barcelona are among the last eight in Europe every season and usually the last four, so for Atletico to win La Liga last season was a tremendous achievement.”
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