Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has recently said on talkSPORT that Barcelona and Real Madrid would not dominate English football like they do in Spain. The Portuguese, who left the Santiago Bernabeú in 2013 after winning three titles in the Spanish capital to take over at Chelsea, claims he did not enjoy his time there and that La Liga’s big two only play around four or five meaningful games in a season.
Despite not having a single English team in the quarter-finals and beyond of this season's UEFA Champions League, Mourinho suggests that English football, in particular the Premier League is still the most competitive in all of Europe.
"I was in Spain but I didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t enjoy it because I won a title with a record in Spain with 100 points and 121 goals, but we played only three or four matches all season. I lost a title with 92 points, but again we played only four or five matches in the season.''
Outside of England, where he enjoyed a spell at Inter Milan, by winning five titles in two years, including a treble in 2010, he still believes that the intensity of Spain and Italy does not compare to what England is like.
"You feel the pressure that you have to win every match because if you don’t you are not champions. You have to win and win. But it is a big, big gap between the giants and the others. In matches in other countries you can win games when you are resting. In Spain and in Italy I won lots of matches resting, where you think ‘what next’, where you think which European game is coming, where you can rest players.
"This season I rested some players against Bradford City and I lost. That is English football. You are winning 2-0 and if you concede a goal you know you are going to have hell for the last few minutes and you might draw 2-2 and lose two points. This is the reality of the Premier League. You have no time. It’s not just about the number of matches, it’s the intensity. And it’s not just physical intensity, you feel the intensity mentally.
I think the difference between the Premier League and La Liga is huge. Would they [Barcelona or Real Madrid] win the Premier League? Maybe yes. Maybe not."