Redknapp says Spain deserves to be compared with champion Brazil side of 1970

London: Former England player Jamie Redknapp has said the current Spanish football team fully deserves to be compared with the brilliant Brazilian team of the 1970s.

Redknapp also slammed Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger for claiming that Spain’s style of play was boring and negative, and added the only England player who could pass as well as the Spanish players was Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes. “I don``t know if Arsene Wenger is suffering from sitting in the pundits’ chair. It does happen. Has he been watching the same team as the rest of us?” Redknapp wrote in his column for the Daily Mail. “When you watch Spain play football of such beauty and control, you have to admire their mastery of the ball. I thought Wenger would understand that better than anyone with the way his Arsenal team try to play,” he added. “We can rave about Spain’s passing but it is the touch to set up a pass. You can press them, get after them, try to close them down and it seems the opponent almost gets there. Then the next opponent almost gets there and then, before you know it, they are into your back four,” he said. Redknapp further wrote “It reminds me of what it was like to play against Paul Scholes, who, I am convinced, would not have looked out of place in this Spain team at the peak of his powers.” “Every one of the Italian players looked like they needed oxygen at the end while the Spanish players looked as if they had not played a game. Touch, pass, balance and a group of footballers who trust each other with the football. This is a team who deserve to be compared with the magical Brazil side of 1970,” Redknapp concluded. (ANI)