It’s a source of perennial frustration for Premier League fans that so many of the world’s best players ply their trade in Spain.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale both swapped English football for La Liga, while Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Luis Suarez all remain on the continent.
In terms of depth, the Premier League might be the stronger of the two leagues, but it’s hard to argue it’s got the better players.
However, one man who knows both leagues well is Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.
The Catalan manager was arguably key to Messi’s development, and while he may rue the day he walked out of the Nou Camp to take sabbatical leave, it’s fair to say he’s never worked with a player quite like that again.
All the same, he has named one player he believes is in Messi’s league when he gets in the box, even if not in his overall game – Sergio Aguero.
“In the box he is at that level,” he told reporters, as per Goal.com.
Guardiola had been asked how his striker compared to the likes of Messi, Suarez, and Ronaldo, and he gave a pretty surprising point of view.
It sounds his one concern over Aguero is the forward’s mentality, adding:
“Aguero has to convince. He is one of the nicest players I ever trained in my career. It is a pleasure for me to work with nice people and Sergio is one of the best ones by far, but to convince him he has to believe how good he is and how we need him.
“He has to try. It is not about how many he scores because we are happy with the scoring, if he doesn’t score it is not because I am not happy with him, with his behaviour or body language. When he is good everything can happen in our team.”
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