Chelsea are the only team in England - Diego Simeone.

There are certain moments, certain comments made about Chelsea that I sit up and take notice. From where we found ourselves back in the eighties to the current day, the transformation has been unbelievable.

Speaking in light of the current transfer speculation about his and other players, Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone has spoken of who he believes to be ahead of his club in purely a sporting sense and not because of financial muscle. He names Chelsea as one of those sides. He said:

“Atlético always had the priority. In addition, there are not many teams who are better in a sporting sense. There aren’t six teams better than us. Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, maybe Chelsea, and then us. Financially we are in the [top] 15,”

Plenty of you people reading this will not remember Chelsea back in the old second division, standing behind electric fences with crowds of around 10,000 for our home games. Especially, remembering the trek the away fans had to make up and across the old away terrace to take their place in their compound underneath the old scoreboard.

You think back to then and take a step forward to where we find ourselves now, recognised as one of the biggest teams in Europe, it's a huge testament to how Roman Abramovich and everyone at the club has taken our club forward.

You only have to look at the struggles Manchester City have faced in the Champions League in particular; to then look at our record in the competition and you will understand how well we have done.

I pinch myself at times and take all this in as we achieve the various successes we have. Football is forever changing and to see other people recognise us as one of the top five clubs with the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid is amazing!