Ray Wilkins seems a nice sort of bloke. He had a hugely successful career for club and country, and had spells playing abroad in France and Italy, away from the hustle and bustle of the English Leagues. He has since chiselled out a successful career as a coach at Chelsea.

So he is not the sort of person you would expect to go and criticise another European league. But that is what Wilkins appears to have done in the wake of David Villa’s decision to reject Wilkins’ club, Chelsea, and join the Galacticos 2.0 revolution at Real Madrid along with Kaka, who also snubbed the Blues.

Wilkins said:

“Do they want the challenge of the Premier League? It’s difficult to play in the Premier League as a foreign player, especially in the first year.

“Are some of these players taking the slightly softer option in going to Real Madrid and staying somewhere where they know and not taking up the challenge elsewhere? I don’t know. I’m just playing devil’s advocate.

“Our league is the best league in the world.”

Now maybe he is comparing Villa to himself, who took the brave move of moving abroad at a time when very few English players left their shores. However I still think his words are a little harsh on Villa and Kaka, after all I don’t think joining Real is the easy option, and maybe he is being a little naïve as to the size of playing for Real.

It is a chance after all to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world. Chelsea for all their riches, do not have the same reputation, history and heritage as Real. They may in a few years, but their success only really began 10 years ago with the rapid growth of the Premier League, Real’s story goes back much further.

But signing for Real is just the start. In no way are you made just by signing on the dotted line, you have to go and prove to the Madrid fans that you are worthy of pulling on the famous white shirt. Many people have tried and failed to cope with the white hot atmosphere in the Bernabeu. For any player, Spanish or otherwise, it is the ultimate challenge.

Wilkins’ comments will also again raise the age old question of which is the better league - though Wilkins seems sure of his choice. It is an argument you could wage until you are blue in the face.

In terms of raw passion and excitement I don’t think it is any better than in the Premier League. The pace of the game is frightening, you don’t have time to think. It is the ultimate test of stamina and strength.

La Liga is not as frenetic and at times adopts a more considered approach. But that means the levels of skill required to score are higher, this is where I feel La Liga has the edge. In terms of technical ability I think Spain holds the ace, whereas in England you are hustled and harried until you make a mistake, in Spain you will be undone by a piece of magic.

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The headline of this article is very much misleading. Real Madrid’s £80m bid for Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo is certainly very real. Just as with their recent £56 million signing of AC Milan’s Brazilian playmaker Kaka, the Madrid giants are very much prepared to the huge sum of money for the Portuguese winger.

However, it must be questioned what reality Madrid and more specifically club president Florentino Perez is living in. The world is in the midst of a global recession and corporations as large as Lloyds Banking Group are laying off thousands (if not tens of thousands) of staff, who are unable to find alternate employment. Despite this, the football world has gone mad, with the world transfer record about to be shattered for the second time in as many weeks.

That Perez is the man at the centre of it comes as no surprise. It was under his watch that the Galacticos era took place and the previous transfer record was broken when Madrid signed Zinedine Zidane from Juventus. Zidane was just one of many superstars to appear in a Real Madrid shirt alongside David Beckham, Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and the original (and I would argue better) Ronaldo.

Perez returned to the club last month in a blaze of glory, promising to reform the Galacticos (perhaps forgetting the precious few trophies won under his original spell at the club). Kaka has signed, Ronaldo is on his way with the promise of many more, with Valencia’s David Villa strongly rumoured to be the next to signup at the Bernabeu.

As for Manchester United, they must be laughing all the way to the bank at the ridiculously high fee for an albeit immensely talented player. The facts are Ronaldo failed to recapture his blistering form from the 2007-08 season and for £80m, United will certainly be able to reshape their team which has shown recently it needs freshened up, despite recapturing their Premiership trophy.

The cold hard facts are United were outplayed by Barcelona in the final of the UEFA Champions League and with Carlos Tevez also linked with a move to Manchester City, it could be a very different United lineup next season. Ironically one man who could be appearing in a Man United shirt next season could be Madrid’s very own Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who has failed to settle in Spain.

Back to Madrid though and once again, they seem to have forgotten about their defence. It’s all well and good having stars like Ronaldo and Kaka going forward but the reality is, if you can’t defend set pieces, you aren’t going to win trophies. Madrid’s already vulnerable defense has been further weakened by the departure of Fabio Cannavaro to former club Juventus.

It remains to be seen how the Galacticos will fair - one thing that is certain however is that with Perez in charge, it won’t be low profile.

Written by Danny Watson, a professional sports writer who blogs about football news.

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