Can Diego Maradona lead Argentina to World Cup glory? The Soccer Saturday boys have their say...
Maradona, an inspired choice or disaster waiting to happen...
It's not long until the World Cup kicks off - and our panel of experts are here to tell you exactly what you can expect in South Africa.
Here on skysports.com, we've brought together the studio stars of Soccer Saturday - Jeff Stelling, Matt Le Tissier, Paul Merson, Phil Thompson and Charlie Nicholas - to share their thoughts on football's showpiece tournament.
In the coming days they'll bring you their tips on the players and teams to look out for in South Africa - as well as debating some of the big World Cup talking points.
And after picking Diego Maradona as the greatest player to have ever graced a World Cup (all except Jeff!), the boys give their views on how he'll fare as a manager on the big stage.
skysports.com: Diego Maradona made quite a few headlines during Argentina's qualifying campaign, but what did you make of his appointment?
MERSE: He was the best player ever, but as a manager I just don't know what he's going to do. It wouldn't surprise me if he left Lionel Messi out in the first game!
JEFF: It's strange isn't it; people are backing Argentina with Diego Maradona in charge and Juan Sebastian Veron as their playmaker... I can't get to grips with that! They've got some fantastically talented players and they might surprise us all, but not for me.
MATT: Looking at their dodgy qualification you'd think this is a disaster waiting to happen. But they managed to sneak through and sometimes the teams that just squeak through qualifying go on to surprise people. Maradona's got that aura about him and you wouldn't put anything past him.
MERSE: Also the pressure was on them to qualify and they did that, so now the pressure ain't on them quite so much. They've got players that would walk into any team and they've left players out like Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso, who'd get into most teams in world football.
THOMMO: But that's why I really think this is a disaster waiting to happen. How he can leave Cambiasso and Zanetti out of his squad is beyond me. They both keep the ball so well and that's so important in these games. Leaving them out doesn't seem like a logical decision, it seems like a petty one based on personal issues and judging by the reaction he's been getting in Argentina, if he doesn't win it this summer I think he will be out of a job.
MATT: I agree, it's all about this summer now. He's used 70-odd players during the qualification, which is a phenomenal approach and is quite odd. This World Cup will either make him or break him as a manager.
CHARLIE: Personally I don't think the choice itself was a disaster. The qualification nearly went the wrong way and Maradona himself is very temperamental, I'm sure he'll create some mayhem of some kind. That is guaranteed! But I think the important thing is Maradona will take a lot of the pressure away from people like Messi, Tevez and his son-in-law Aguero. The pressure isn't on the players in the way it would normally be in that country - and that's because it's predominantly all on Maradona.
We can see with England that Fabio Capello is trying to deflect the pressure onto himself, but Maradona is unconsciously doing it. And I think that will help the Argies, there's no doubt about that.
