Ronaldo has a sly dig at the Premier League

Real Madrid’s new signing, Cristiano Ronaldo, has had a sly dig at the Premier League by saying that Spain’s La Liga will reach heights that English football cannot get near. Ronaldo recently left Manchester United to join the Spanish giants for a world record transfer fee of £80 million and he could not resist having a little stab as he made his exit.

Ronaldo should not forget that the English game is where he made his name and the amount of money being spent and that is available to Spanish clubs can only mean that more high quality players will go there. You would be hard pushed to find an English club that would spend the same level of money on a single player and because of this they will never join Manchester United or Chelsea.

Ronaldo never really had that many people who adored him while he was playing here, other than United fans, and now that he has left he has probably just lost the respect of a few of that group too. A lot of players bow out of a league and pay it tribute, they certainly do not turn round and have a sly stab backwards.

Ronaldo said: “The Premier League is a very good competition, but I think that the Spanish league is going to have a little more quality because of the players that are arriving. Both leagues are going to be very good, but I think that with Florentino Perez's signings the Spanish league is superior to the English.”

“It's going to be a magnificent competition in Spain. All the players have a lot of quality and the referees protect the players more. To win the Champions League in our stadium would be a great dream. It's possible with all the players we have. However, you need to recognise that Barcelona had a great season and played very well. They have a great team and a magnificent coach. It's going to be a very important duel for Spanish and European football.”

Well he does have a point when it comes to the money that Real Madrid are spending. If Ronaldo chose to look into the subject a little more than he would find that English clubs can’t really call on the government for a ridiculous level of money at any time that decide. Therefore English clubs can’t afford to pay over £130 million and two players and monopolise the best of the talent that is left in the transfer market.

It is only a suggesstion but maybe the main reason that so many players want to go to Madrid is due to the new found wealth they have found. Many players are not stupid and will quickly realise that if they go there, they will be paid more than a player has ever been paid and they will have a better chance of success because everyone else is going there.

However, moving back to the original argument at hand. There are a lot of differences between the Spanish and English leagues and both have their unique qualities and differences. One of the main reasons that the Spanish national side has done so well is the fact that the Spanish game is so much more technical and the players are so gifted on the ball. This gives them so much time and space to play killer passes and develop play that makes it virtually impossible for a team to defend.

These are things that not a lot of English sides can do and they are the main defintions of the Spanish game. Hence why when you watch a Spanish game it is easy to mark the quality against the English leagues as you very rarely see a scrappy goal in a Spanish league match.

On the other hand the English game is built a lot more on the physical approach as opposed to the technical. A lot of players both past and present said they hate playing against Engliosh defenders because they know they will get kicked in the air and will not be able to settle at all during a game. This is why so many foreign fans view the English game as thuggish but this is why we love it so much in this country. How many of us all cheered when ever Ronaldo got kicked in a United shirt?

The Premier League probably also has a greater pace and a stronger element of the counter attacking game. A lot of teams soak up pressure during English games because of the physical and aggressive nature of some attacking sides, this means that when they get a chance they have to bomb it to the other end of the pitch to counter attack. This makes for very end to end exciting football.

Officials have even got so used to the physical nature of English football that in the Premier League you can get away with more than you can in any other league across Europe. In a lot of European games involving English sides, so many tackles that are second nature to some players are penalised because the officials are not used to what they are seeing.

So both leagues are very different and it would be silly to try and define one as better than the other. For the purist, Spanish football would be better because it is a lot easier on the eye but for people that want a genuinely exciting game that can throw up an unpredicted result then English football will never be substituted.

Ronaldo is quite within his rights to have his say on our game because he has spent a large part of his career playing football in England, this is after all, the country where he made his name. However, it will be interesting to see next season if Real Madrid play Chelsea or Manchester United, if Ronaldo has forgotten about how physical the game can be here. I’m sure a few mistimed elbows and sliding tackles will be aimed in his direction and if he continues to come out with comments such as this then there will be a lot more people cheering as opposed to calling for the referees whistle.