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Maradona – You’ve made a right old Messi of this!
October 14th 2009 by Mystical Mike

Imagine a world cup without the world’s best player? It’s still a distinct possibility with Argentina stuttering over the finish line. Defeat tonight and the unthinkable may become a reality.

If Diego Maradona’s Argentina lose to Uruguay and Ecuador beat Chile, who have already qualified, then Argentina will miss out.

You have to go back to 1970 for the last time Argentina failed to qualify. Winners in 1978 and 1986, The Albicelestes are usually among the favorites to win the tournament. But, with Diego Maradona’s catastrophic campaign coming to a close in Montevideo, World Cup elimination will confirm the biggest fall from grace for any sporting hero in the history of the game.

So why should they be worried? A Uruguay win will see them qualify. The Charrúas have only lost once at home, and that was to Brazil. Argentina on the other hand have lost their last four away games, 3 of those with Maradona in charge. They were less then convincing in a lucky injury time win over struggling Peru who had lost all 8 previous away games scoring twice and conceding a staggering 24!

So does Maradona actually know what he is doing?

His team selections are puzzling to say the least… Martin Palermo – while the last minute hero on Saturday – is a 36yr old journeyman who should be nowhere near the squad in the first place. Lisandro Lopez, Gonzalo Higuain and Diego Milito could all play a much better role as a focal point ahead of Palermo. (That’s supposing that Maradona wont play a small guy up front like Tevez or Aguero)

He has fallen out with Riquelme – the man who never loses the ball for his country – as such they are reliant on Veron and Aimar as the creative forces. Two players who promised much but have never quite delivered. Riquelme was also the man who gave the ball to Messi. Now Messi is crowded out and has no-one to play with.

He keeps picking players on reputation, Heinze, Veron & Aimar.

His tactics are terrible – totally lop-sided. On Saturday, he played Newcastle’s Jonas Guttierez (an average left winger) at right-back.

If they do fail to qualify then I for one will be very disappointed not to see Lionel Messi at the World Cup, however, nothing would give me more pleasure then watching the worlds biggest cheat finally get his comeuppance.

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  1. Mike Says:
    October 14th, 2009 at 11:34 am

    the guy is a first class tool. He is the classic case of great players DO NOT make good managers, John Barnes anyone?

  2. jimmythegent Says:
    October 14th, 2009 at 2:40 pm

    I hate him with a passion, a bit like Megan Fox’s bloke

  3. dexylongshot Says:
    October 14th, 2009 at 3:00 pm

    my thoughts haven’t changed on him either.

    http://blog.ukfootballfinder.co.uk/?p=1970#comments

  4. dexylongshot Says:
    October 14th, 2009 at 3:01 pm

    this one too..

    http://blog.ukfootballfinder.co.uk/?p=359#comments

  5. Jackieemu Says:
    October 14th, 2009 at 3:53 pm

    I just can’t believe Julio Julio Julio arca hasn’t been called or carlos marenelli both…sh*t incidently so ideal for maradona squad…

    he’s still better than mclaren…

  6. Tom Says:
    October 14th, 2009 at 6:43 pm

    They will lose tonight and so will equador, they could up playing costa rica, whoopie do. They’ll be there, Fifa will make sure of it

  7. Stevie Says:
    October 15th, 2009 at 7:39 am

    i stayed up to watch this game, it was one of the poorest games of football I’ve ever seen. The quality or lack of it from sides was appalling.

    Messi was a shadow of his Barca self, I lost count the amount of times Veron gave the ball away. Under Maradona they are a complete shambles. He must be sacked surely. They ain’t going nowhere with him at the helm!

  8. Mike Says:
    October 15th, 2009 at 11:30 am

    Lucky lucky goal in the 83rd minute… curses!

  9. dexylongshot Says:
    October 15th, 2009 at 11:41 am

    I watched England stroll it with Belarus, grinned at Crouch’s brace, laughed at Brucey Bonus MOTM for Becks (what’s all that about, especially when they showed Becks 4 key moments which consisted of him hitting the post and giving the ball away 3 times, watch it again, 3 times his bootiful long sweeping pass’s lost us possession), enjoyed Milners Waddlesque mugging of the defender before he hit the post, gazed in awe at Fabio’s press conference and then went to bed most content for an hour. Then got back up for the argies later. What a terrible advert for footy, some fine players on the team sheets but none of them turned up. The tactics formations, it was schoolboy stuff. The play-acting and rolling about was amongst the worse (if not the worse), i have ever seen 1 match. Lucky fkin Diego again, I hope we get them if that git is still in charge, Fabio will make mincemeat of him. I think it might change by then though, if the Argie bigwigs have any sense, they’ll get shot of Madge and bring someone else in sharpish, they should be favourites with the players at their disposal.

  10. Mike Says:
    October 16th, 2009 at 1:50 pm

    This man has no class what so ever!

    He showed the footballing world just what a tool he is with a childish outburst on national TV, he told the Argentine footballing body to suck his balls for not backing him during his appalling WC campaign. He’ll surely get the sack any day now

  11. Mickey Marbles Says:
    October 27th, 2009 at 5:16 pm

    There are rumours he is for the chop on the net today. I want him to stay on so we can muller him next summer in the final, preferably with a blatent Rooney handball!

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