"MORE than two decades after he led Argentina to the World Cup triumph, Diego Maradona will now take over as coach of the national team after the resignation of Alfio Basile. Some may question the appointment of Maradona as national coach but he is an icon in Argentina. Of course Maradona has had his ups and downs since retiring from the game as a player so it is going to be interesting to see how he does. He certainly has the players to work with as Argentina are one of the best sides in the world. But they have had a few slip ups in 2010 World Cup qualifying but the important thing is that they get to South Africa in two year's time.

The most important thing for Maradona right now is surrounding himself with good people ¿ people who are on the same page and who he can trust. And it seems that he has started to do so as Carlos Bilardo will be the manager while Maradona will be the coach.

You can't have a better person than Bilardo who has a lot of experience and also has had a great deal of success with Argentina. After all he was Argentina's national coach when they won the 1986 World Cup and also was at the helm when Argentina made it to the final in 1990 before being beaten by Germany.

It is often said that great players ¿ and Maradona was one of the greatest ever ¿ don't make good coaches but look how Beckenbauer made out with Germany!

One thing going in Maradona's favour is that the players really look up to him and no doubt will be inspired to have him on the touchline.

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REDKNAPP

If anyone can get Tottenham out of the relegation zone it is my old friend and teammate Harry Redknapp who was appointed manager after the Spaniard Ramos was fired on the weekend.

And in two games Harry has already picked up four points for the suffering London team. The match against Arsenal on Wednesday was a cracker and a real roller coaster with Spurs coming away with a point after the 4-4 draw.

On Sunday shortly after he was appointed Spurs managed to beat Bolton 2-0 and that must come as a great relief to Spurs fans. I would hate to see a great club like Spurs go down and the first thing Harry will have to do is get the players thinking positive and get their confidence back up because they do have some very good players.

Harry is one of the best managers around and the players all respect him. He has a proven record ¿ just look at what he has done at other clubs.

This weekend will be another tough match for Spurs as they go up against top of the table Liverpool who are playing with great confidence now after beating Chelsea 1-0 last weekend and also coming away with three points against Harry's old team Portsmouth who have been taken over by Harry's assistant Tony Adams.

I was disappointed that West Ham lost another match this week ¿ this time to Manchester United.

I feel a bit sorry for new manager Zola as he has so many players out injured. One fellow we must get back quickly is Dean Ashton who is a good striker. But he seems to spend more time on the treatment table than on the field. We also need Dyer back as well because he is such a talented player.

Ronaldo scored both against us on Wednesday ¿ but the second I was a bit angry about despite an excellent bit of play by Dimitar Berbatov who took the ball to the line and then turned and flicked the ball over the defender's foot to set up the Portuguese player. Berbatov has such great balance for a big fellow and his close skill is superb but if that defender had been Billy Bonds or Nobby Stiles the Bulgarian would have ended up in the seats! You can't let a player do that to you.

Hull were finally beaten on Wednesday by Chelsea but they still have my full admiration. Last weekend they beat fellow promoted team West Brom and while they have a difficult task this weekend when they visit Old Trafford I know they will fight hard. Their manager Phil Brown has got all the players working for each other. While in the regular world it may be dog eat dog, in football it is all about teamwork. Hull realise they don't have the likes of Ronaldo, Gerrard, Rooney or Torres but they back up each other and tackle hard as Ashley Cole found out on Wednesday.

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MAKING AN IMPACT

The usual suspects lead many of the leagues in Europe but there are a couple of teams who have managed to get ahead in Italy and Germany. In Italy Udinese and Napoli are on top of Serie A leading big guns AC Milan and Inter Milan. I would watch out for Napoli this season ¿ they look very good and beat Reggina 3-0 this week.

In Germany the big surprise is Hoffenheim who come from a town with only 3,500 people but who get over 25,000 to their games.

Nine games into the season, Hoffenheim are on top after their 3-1 victory over Hamburg last weekend. It's a great story.