Paul Scholes has taken up TV punditry as his career choice after retiring from football in 2013. The Manchester United legend has been a harsh critic of his old club during the last three seasons.
The club have not been able to replicate the success that brought a fear factor to Old Trafford when they were playing under Sir Alex Ferguson. Since the Scotsman's departure, the club have been in transition.
Neither David Moyes nor Louis Van Gaal could bring back the winning mentality to the squad that once reigned supreme. But after Mourinho took over this summer the club look to be back to their fearful best.
The acquisitions of Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic has transformed this team and they now look like title favourites. But Scholes is unhappy with the quality of the Premier League and believes it is not as entertaining as it used to be.
As mentioned by the Guardian, in his new book Scholes has talked about his glory days and about what the Premier League has become. One of the extracts from the book reads as follows:
“I don't find elite football as interesting to watch any more, especially in England. You hear about people saying English football’s the best football there is around. I think Spain’s by far the best league.”
“The Spanish league’s the best by far if you’re judging on the European competitions. 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. ThePremier League had just two.”
“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 any more. You never see a Lionel Messi coming over here, you never see a Neymar in the Premier League.”
“I probably do enjoy watching Salford more. I don’t know if it’s as much that I don’t like the hassle of going to the game, getting in, sitting in traffic. Going to Salford, I park up behind the goal and get out of my car. But I genuinely get more enjoyment from watching even my son’s team, Royter Town.
“It’s like a men’s team, but he’s 16. He started playing a few games for them last season. I went to watch him once, it was 5-4. It’s just entertainment.”
It is a very keen observation by the former midfielder. The likes of Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have added to the star power of the league, but the overall quality is arguably still a bit stale.
