“The best players are at Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. I think the level below that is probably Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus. And under that is where the quality of English clubs come into it.”
Paul Scholes could not sweep Premier League’s situation under the carpet.
His blunt comments made back in October thoroughly imprinted the blurred reality in English football, simultaneously sending shockwaves of pragmatism around the island.
“If you look at the quality of players that come to England I don’t think we have the best players in Europe or in the world.”
Indeed, six months later, the quarter-finals draws in both Europa League and Champions League, cynically proved him right.
Delegates from only two Premier League teams made the journey all the way to UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon.
Although being the most competitive league around Europe this season, numbers prove Scholes’ statements right as well, especially if we take a closer look at Premier League strikers’ performances, both inside and outside the borders.
According to squawka.com, Harry Kane is the only Premier League player that features the top 10 list of scorers between the five best leagues in Europe, with 21 goals.
Moreover, Olivier Giroud is the only striker representing the English top tier in the top 10 scorers’ lists of both the Europa League and Champions League, with five goals.
Premier League clubs seem unable to convert their chances into rewards.
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While teams like Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea domestically produce 17.3, 16.1 and 14.3 shots per goal each, they fail to impress and find their way to the top of the league.
Meanwhile, Premier League forwards have marked less goals than any of their counterparts in the top five leagues, apart from the French Ligue 1.
According to transfermarkt.com, a 47.9% percentage of goals in the English top-flight come from defenders and midfielders, while forwards seem to be the main protagonists in La Liga (67.4%), Serie A (60.6%) and the Bundesliga (60%).
Although strikers like Kane and Jamie Vardy have impressed with their performances throughout the season, English teams seem unable to import effective attacking players.
During the summer and winter transfer seasons of 2015-16, clubs spent millions of pounds to sign the likes of Radamel Falcao, Alexandre Pato, Pedro, Roberto Firmino, Anthony Martial, Memphis Depay and Aleksandar Mitrovic.
The seven of them have domestically scored a combined number of 28 goals so far, seven fewer than the 35 that (the 34-year-old) Zlatan Ibrahimovic has marked in all competitions.
At the same time, it seems unlikely that Kane can compete for the European Golden Boot, sitting in ninth position on the list.
Over the last 10 years only Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez have managed to win the award, while over the last five – apart from the Uruguayan striker- only Robin van Persie has featured the top three of the contenders for the trophy.
Following Scholes, another Manchester United former player in Rio Ferdinand emphasized on the lack of world-class players earlier in March, mentioning that the greatest achievements of the English clubs abroad were due to the involvement of some of the best players in the world.
Among these, Premier League teams included in their squads a great number of legendary strikers, who scored decisive goals leading their teams to Champions League success.
Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole and Teddy Sheringham were part of the Manchester United team that won the breathtaking final back in 1999 against Bayern Munich.
Arsenal did not have the same luck as their Manchester counterparts, losing from Barcelona in the 2006 final. However, the Gunners gave the neutral fans the chance to entertain themselves by watching an amazing frontline consisting of Thierry Henry (top three in the Golden Boot race that year), Dennis Bergkamp and Robin van Persie.
In the Champions League quarter-finals in 2007-08, Fernando Torres’ (33 goals in the season) Liverpool knocked out Adebayor’s (30 goals in the season) Arsenal, before being eliminated by Chelsea.
The Blues met Manchester United in the final, with Carlos Tevez, Wayne Rooney and Didier Drogba all featuring in the game, under the shadow of the 2008 Golden Boot winner Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Red Devils also took part in the 2009 final against Guardiola’s astonishing Barcelona, with the club’s squad including the likes of last-year’s trio plus another great striker, Dimitar Berbatov.
In the 2012 final Drogba’s header sent Chelsea to extra-time, where the Blues defeated Bayern – in Munich – to lift their first ever Champions League trophy.
“In those days we had teams that were conditioned to go into tournaments and go deep into tournaments.
“I think back then the best players in the world, there were some in this country. At the moment there aren’t any.”
Ferdinand got straight to the point.
Leafing through the history books, containing the European achievements of Premier League teams, we can spot various chapters entirely dedicated to the clubs’ world-class strikers.
Over the years, English clubs have successfully employed some of the most legendary forwards in the world of football.
It remains to be seen whether the clubs will avoid falling into the trap of not seeing the forest for the trees and manage to protect their product by attracting and retaining the most gifted scorers around the globe once again.
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