Former Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand has claimed Premier League teams are way off winning the Champions League.
Following Real Madrid's semi final triumph over Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, the former England international admitted English teams were well behind their European counterparts.
"All our English teams are way off this standard," he told BT Sport.
"Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Juventus. There's a lot of money that's come into the English game, but all the English teams seem to be in a transition. New managers, new teams.
"Chelsea are the nearest, they have a real settled team and their first XI is a real, genuine first XI. I think Jose Mourinho is still searching for his first XI, he's still not sure of a few players. This summer will be huge for them."
Ferdinand was quick to point out what he believed was the cause of the perceived gap.
He added: "I just feel like the English teams are in transition all the time,"
"This is Real Madrid's seventh consecutive semi-final. It's no surprise that Madrid, Bayern, Barcelona, Juve, they're getting to the latter stages every single year.
"They change a few little nuances every year. In England it's "Oh we've had a bad season, let's rip it up and start again.
"We seem to be chasing all the time. We need a little bit of patience with the managers, we need to keep all of our better players.
"The better players never leave here, or at Juve. When we get a star man in the Premier League – Chelsea and Eden Hazard, it's "Real Madrid want him. " Coutinho, oh "Barcelona want him". They're looking over their shoulders all the time."
