Gerard Pique says Barcelona and Real Madrid would not win the Premier League title

In the first season, at least...

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique (Getty Images)

Barcelona defender Gerard Pique has claimed that his club and rivals Real Madrid would not win the Premier League if they were to take part in it, for the first season at least.

The World Cup-winning centre-back, who spent four formative years at Manchester United during the early part of his career, appears to buy into the theory that the style of play employed by Spanish sides would be difficult to implement successfully in England.

In fact, Pique almost went as far as claiming that teammate Lionel Messi could not 'do it' on a wet Wednesday night in Stoke.

“I think that if Barcelona or Real Madrid goes to the Premier League then the first year of playing there, there is no chance of winning it,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

“I think so, because if you go to Stoke, or other types of teams, then it will be really tough. It’s a debate – we could spend hours on it."

In recent years, La Liga’s clubs have tended to come out on top when meeting Premier League sides in European competition.

Manchester City have been eliminated by Pique’s side in each of the last two seasons. In Sir Alex Ferguson’s final season, United came up short over two-legs against Real.

A year later, Chelsea were knocked out at the semi-final stage by Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid.

“If Manchester United or Chelsea go to Spain then the same,” Pique added. “No chance to win the league.”

Gerard Pique upon signing for Manchester United in 2004 (Getty Images)

The 28-year-old defender also revealed the reasons behind his departure from Manchester United

“When I was there Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Cristiano Ronaldo, Giggs, Scholes, Roy Keane. We won the Champions League in 2008. We won the league. It was a really, really good team,” Pique said.

“The centre-backs, Rio Ferdinand, Vidic. I was really unlucky. They never got injured. Then I left and then they started to get injuries! This is football but I’m not really worried.

“It’s true that I was happy in Manchester even though I didn’t play as much as I wanted to.”

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Pique, who began his career in Barcelona’s fabled La Masia youth system, made 23 appearances for United before returning to his boyhood club in May 2008.

“The day I finally signed for Barcelona and I came back it was ‘wow, the dream comes true’,” he said.

“After this we won a lot of titles and other dreams come true but the main one was playing for the club that I had supported all my life.”