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He did it as a player - in fact many attribute Argentina’s last win in the World Cup to Maradona. Without him, they would not have made the finals let alone won. Now, Argentina is in trouble again and it looks like they will be calling on their favorite son to come to the rescue.

Argentina are close to not qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. They have sacked their coach and called for applications. One of those applications has the name Diego Maradona on it and from all reports, he is almost guaranteed the position.

The feeling is that, while he may not be a skilled coach, he is a great motivator and with the help of assistant coaches, can get their team to lift sufficiently to make it to South Africa. From there of course, anything can happen.

It’s a great plan. Maradona will lift not only the team, but the nation as well. The problem is, first, the nations expectations may be greater than Maradona’s, or the teams, ability. Therein lies the problem. The team is one of the weakest put together by Argentina for many years. Without the talent on the field, even the great Maradona may struggle. You may have another opinion - if so, let me know!

Newcastle have doubled their season victories with a win over West Bromwich. More importantly, the three points have lifted them out of the relegation zone - at least until after tomorrow nights games.

With four of the six bottom teams playing each other, Newcastle could find themselves at 17th tomorrow night, still outside the zone. However, a couple of drawn games and a win by Stoke against Sunderland and Newcastle could be back to 19th.

The win by Newcastle is more important than just the three points. Young Joey Barton, despite all the troubles so far this year, bounced back from suspension and three months in jail to score the first goal to set up Newcastle’s win.

One you get that winning feeling and the team starts to gel together properly, more wins will follow. What do you think? Is yesterday’s win the start of a mini-revival for Newcastle?

Much has been said about David Beckham and his proposed move to Milan. Unfortunately much of what has been said has been unfair and probably a little unwarranted.

Beckham is coming back to Galaxy for the start of the new season. However, as he says, his whole career has revolved around playing and/or training for 11 months a year. Until moving to Galaxy, he had never had a three month ‘holiday’ at the end of a season.

After last seasons ‘holiday’, Beckham found it difficult to resume playing. He is over 30 now with a body that has been playing football for over 20 years, the past 15 as a professional. In a nutshell, his move to Milan at the end of the season is to stay fit, not just in the legs, but in the head as well, and that comes from playing quality football rather than simple training on the track.

It’s a good move by Beck’s. He stays fit, he gets to play again in a top line competition, and of course, as a bonus, he is closer to the English national World Cup team. Is it coincidence? Of course not. The would have been on his mind when considering what to do. But then - what’s wrong with that?

The unbeaten Chelsea today lost their home record when visiting Liverpool claimed top spot on the league ladder with a stunning 1-0 win.

Chelsea fans arrived expecting to leave at the end of the day as the clear leader of the premiership. Instead they watched as Liverpool stole the three points, the premiership lead and all their pride. Chelsea now sit equal second with Hull on 20 points. They will now have to regroup to travel to Hull on Wednesday night.

This loss will dampen their confidence a little whilst providing a spur to Hull and others. Chelsea are not invincible - they can be beaten. A loss to Hull will see Chelsea drop to a least third, perhaps even further depending on other results. This is one win that will certainly be discussed at length.

English football is going through its annual mid-season crisis with managers jumping from one club to the next. Juande Ramos is gone from Spurs leaving the door open for Portsmouth Manager Harry Redknapp to take over.

Redknapp has already served as manager at West Ham and Southampton before arriving at Portsmouth. He about to add Tottenham to his resume. He has some degree of success at Portsmouth taking them to victory in the FA Cup last season.

In the meantime, Sam Allardyce, the former Bolton and Newcastle manager is the favourite to take over at Portsmouth. Allardyce doesn’t have the best of records but he is taking over a team that is performing reasonably well in both the domestic and UEFA cup competitions.

As for Juande Ramos, he has only been in the job for a year and should receive a fairly good contract payout. Whereto from here? Ramos won the UEFA Cup with Sevilla and will be in demand, perhaps in Europe. No one can really criticize him for Spurs current situation. After all, Spurs sold several top players including Dimitar Berbatov to Manchester United and Robbie Keane to Liverpool, both top goalscorers. Roman Pavlyuchencko from Spartak Moscow was the only replacement and he has done nothing of note.

With the general state of football, don’t be surprised if Ramos ends up at Newcastle. He couldn’t do any worse there, could he?

One of the problems with high profile players with multi-million dollar price tags is that sometimes these players don’t make great team players. I am sure you have heard the saying that a ‘champion team will always beat a team of champions’. This has its roots in that very problem.

Players with high profiles and high price tags often feel they have to justify their positions. English football is a good example. Champion strikers need to score goals on a regular basis or they will lose their appeal. Why spend 20 million pounds on a striker that isn’t scoring goals?

This brings about situations where the striker is trying to hit the back of the net with every opportunity, even if it’s only a half opportunity. A lower profile ‘team’ player will look to promote the ball to another player in a better position, or display a little patience and work themselves into a better scoring position.

Not all high profile, high price tag, players are guilty of this. There are some players that are brilliant ‘team’ players. However, every now and then a individual surfaces. Manchester United seem to be suffering a little from the individual phenomenon at present. If they can get their ‘team’ play back they may well win another championship or two, until then, they will continue to put in lacklustre performances.

When we talk about the bad boys of football we are generally talking about one of the players. In the UK, the bad boy of football is one of the referees. Rob Styles has had an illustrious career and probably has the record for having the most number of red cards overturned on appeal. That one statistic would have to make you wonder at his suitability in the job to start with.

The latest incident involving Styles was a controversial penalty shot on goal and straight red card for a tackle that everyone has agreed was totally legitimate. The result in the match between Newcastle and Manchester City was grossly affected by this decision. To begin with, it gifted a goal to Manchester City and then left Newcastle to play the majority of the game one player short. The red card penalty was quickly overturned by the FA on appeal - days after the match was completed.

Referee decisions that have such a huge bearing on the result cannot continue to be made. This one decision could see Newcastle face relegation at the end of the season - a decision that in effect is worth hundreds of millions of pounds in possible revenue.

Styles is now considering retiring from the game. With luck he will finally make a good decision and leave the game far better off!

The chief executive of the English Premier League has tried to raise the possibility of an English Premier League match being played overseas. This was quickly quashed by players, managers, clubs, the media and most importantly, the fans.

However, whilst English soccer is arguing over playing domestic games overseas, the NFL is set to play a game between New Orleans Saints and the San Diego Chargers to a sold out crowd at Wembley Stadium.

Other sports have looked to expand beyond their shores. Australian football has a policy of playing end of season games in both Britain and the US. They also stage a mixed code series against Ireland that blends Gaelic football and Australian football.

Soccer is already a global sport of course. The European set up of taking the top teams to the next level through the Champions league works well to promote teams in a variety of countries. The World Club championships is another example of soccer teams playing teams from other countries, or traveling to those countries to play.

Globalisation is fine when it comes to sports that are unique to a particular country or region. American football is one example as is Australian and Gaelic football. Soccer, it doesn’t need globalization - it’s already global.

For a team that has only just been promoted, Hull have had a dream run. They currently sit a clear third on 17 points, one win behind the leader and one point in front of the pack headed by Arsenal on 16.

This next eight days when really test the mettle of Hull however. On Saturday they take the trip to West Bromwich. They haven’t been playing with a lot of confidence and will be tested by Hull. I expect Hull will come away from that game with at least a point.

From there it goes downhill for Hull. They back up on Wednesday and host Premiership leaders Chelsea. Chelsea are a real powerhouse at present and Hull will find it hard to get even a point out of that game. Three days later they face another big test when they travel to Manchester United.

Manchester United have had an unsteady start to the season but they are now starting to get into some form. This is another game that Hull will struggle to get a point from.

Losing two out of those three games could see Hull drop right out of the top four and conceivable drop to 8th place. Some punters have backed Hull to at least draw with Chelsea on Wednesday night. I am sure there are some that will back them to win. Will You - or do you think they are in the top three under false pretenses?

We are expecting more and more from professional sport people each and every day. English football is a good case in point. When you consider a team can be involved in the Premiership, the Champions League (or UEFA Cup), the Carling Cup and the FA Cup, that’s a lot of football. Add to that any appearances by players in their respective World Cup campaigns and the pressure is really on.

This week past two weeks has seen World Cup matches, Champions League and Premiership matches. This coming week will see Premiership matches on Saturday and Sunday with the teams backing up on Tuesday on Wednesday for another round of Premierships matches. For some players, it will be three games in ten days, for others 5 games in 15 days - this is at the elite professional level.

With so many appearances on the field along with training, injuries not appear more frequently, they can be harder to recover from. Many players become burnt out in their early 30’s when in the past, some of the better players have played into their late 30’s or early 40’s.

Is the such a thing as too much sport for our elite athletes? You will have to ask them. What are your thoughts? Do we expect too much from our athletes, or are they paid so much that two or three games per week should be expected? Join SportsViews and share your thoughts on all things sports related.