Chelsea winger Florent Malouda has criticised English football describing it as “brainless” and dismissing the players’ diets as awful.
The French international, who signed from Lyon for £13m in the summer, said: “Training sessions are terrifying. They are maximum intensity, and you go flat out.
“During actual matches, it is as though everybody’s brains are switched off. People play by instinct, how they did when they first discovered football.”
He is amazed players can eat “whatever you like, drink Coke or anything”.
“It is a good job I have come over here at the age of 27 and so have not been following the same diet as the rest of the club’s players,” he added.
The France international has been out of action for a month with a knee injury but appears daunted about the prospect of returning for the hectic Christmas fixture schedule.
He said: “I have been warned about the Christmas periods in English football. They sound terrible.”
And it wasn’t just playing matters that had annoyed Malouda during his time in England.
“I have only just had a phone line put in,” he admitted. “Things are not as simple over here as they are in France. You can’t just go into a shop and ‘bingo’ they come round the next day to install your equipment. In a way, I’ve enjoyed getting myself out of the shit by myself as I have often had to do in my life.
“The traffic in London goes at a snail’s pace at times, so sometimes I end up taking the Tube.”
