Diego Maradona has hurt Argentina's chances, says Ossie Ardiles

Argentina begin their World Cup campaign on Saturday and one thing we can be sure of is that it will be a bumpy ride with Diego Maradona at the helm.

Chosen One?: Diego Maradona believes he is destined to win the World Cup as a player and manager

I am critical of his irresponsible team selection, and I'm still of the view that he was a strange choice as national team manager.

Diego won't think so. He sees himself as ‘The Chosen One’, and believes his destiny on earth is to win the World Cup as a player, and as a manager. But so far he has clearly not been successful as a manager. We qualified for these World Cup finals by the skin of our teeth, and with plenty of luck.

That is not reflected in the players we have available. Yes, Diego was the greatest player in the history of the game. I know, I played with him; but that does not excuse the glaring omissions from Argentina’s squad.

Key players, leaders on the pitch like Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso and Juan Riquelme, to name just three of several, have been dumped.

Moreover, Maradona goes to the World Cup without a specialist right-back, when our Achilles heel is clearly the defence.

I'm disappointed with Maradona, because there is no rationale behind those decisions. There has been unrest behind the scenes. Maradona had a public falling out with Riquelme, after comments Maradona made about the player on television. Riquelme should have been conducting the orchestra on the pitch at this tournament. Instead, they no longer talk to each other.

It makes no sense at all to me that Zanetti is missing. He's had a wonderful season as captain of Inter Milan, they completed the treble, with League and Cup in Italy, and took the Champions League.

Zanetti's a versatile, vastly experienced player, who can play at right back. For the last two games, Maradona improvised with Jonas Gutierrez, who plays as left wing/left midfield in Newcastle.

That’s irresponsible of Maradona to be perfectly honest. Leaving out top players is giving far too many advantages to the opposition. Very, very stupid.

He and Carlos Bilardo, the team’s general manager, and the manager of Argentina at the ’86 World Cup, have been at each other’s throats. Behind the scenes, they were trying to get rid of each other. It was so bad, the president of the Argentine FA had to step in to resolve the dispute.

Maradona has said he wants Bilardo nowhere near the dressing room, even though he is general manager in South Africa.

Maradona surrounds himself with ‘Yes, Diego’ men, and that has been Maradona's problem all his life. Then Maradona fights with everyone.

My view is that Maradona sees the World Cup as his salvation. Yet he was ‘damaged’ after not being selected for Argentina in 1978, the year we won the World Cup. He and I have spoken about this. He always compared himself to Pele, wanted to be the youngest player to win the World Cup, and it left him deeply hurt. He was 16, and he would have been the youngest ever to play. He wanted to beat Pele in everything, and his dream was destroyed.

My view, by the way, is that he should have played in '78.

Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer and Jurgen Klinsmann proved they could be both great players and great managers. But it does not always translate. As a player Maradona was a natural leader, did the unexpected for his team, but as a manager, I’m not so sure. The team does not belong to Maradona, but he acts as if it does.

Forget technical, tactical or psychological methods with Maradona, none of these things are what move him. What he has is a certain voice inside him that says, boom, go for, this, boom, go for that; only a sense of destiny and that is what drives him.

Look at Argentina’s qualifying — one of the worst ever. The country was on tenterhooks. Brazil beat us at home — very hard to accept; Bolivia beat us 6-1 — it was always the other way around. The level of the international team has dropped tremendously.

The jury is out on Maradona at the moment. They nearly got rid of him, and remember he is thought of as a God in Argentina. Because we are third in the betting, Maradona is getting the benefit of the doubt at home.

We might see some kind of craziness from him in the pressure cauldron of the World Cup, which has defined Diego's life.

After his non-selection in 1978, his World Cups have been huge ups, huge downs. In 1982, he finished the World Cup by being sent off against Brazil. In 1986, he was everything — he was the figure of the World Cup.

In 1990, in Italy, he was injured and couldn't play but it finished in triumph for him because they were runners-up with a pretty poor team. In 1994, it ended for him in disgrace because of the drugs.

I don’t want to be completely pessimistic. There is reason to be confident. It is a very good squad. And Maradona has the best player in the world in Lionel Messi.

The biggest question mark about Argentina is the manager himself and that will only be resolved in the coming six weeks. Argentina's fortunes in this World Cup could mirror those of Maradona's history in the tournament. Ecstasy and glory, or agony and ignominy. The one or the other, the story of Maradona's life.