CRESPO returns to Parma + one little rant from me!

After failing to settle in as their first choice striker at Genoa, Hernán CRESPO has left the club and joined Parma.

Only 5 goals in 16 appearances for Genoa is certainly not something to write home about. CRESPO will now try to rediscover his goalscoring form at a club for which he scored 61 goals in 116 matches between 1996 and 2000.

I love CRESPO to bits, but I think his days with the national team are over (and if they are not over, they should be).

Not because he lost his abilities (I'm confident he can still deliver the goods), but because there are other players who are far superior right now.

I don't like the way the media insists that this move for CRESPO could result in more playing time and a chance for him to be recalled to the national team.

As I have always said in this space, it is more important to have a past with Boca Juniors or River Plate than to achieve big things and break all kinds of records elsewhere.

Having Martín PALERMO still pretty much in the radar for the national team is testament to this.

To go to a World Cup, it is believed that the 23 names should or would or could be divided like this: 2/3 goalkeepers; 6/7 defenders; 6/7 midfielders; 6/7 forwards.

Since we are speaking about forwards, we have to consider the following: MARADONA will bring MESSI, AGÜERO and TEVEZ. That's an absolute certainty the way I see it. That leaves room for other forwards but not all of them can be out and out strikers (in the mould of BATISTUTA or CRESPO).

The way I see it (and I defy any of you to challenge me with stats and facts), there are better options to CRESPO or PALERMO. I honestly think both should miss out on our World Cup squad.

I know MARADONA is in love with LAVEZZI so I'm pencilling him there.

Our two strikers should then be Diego MILITO (my first choice) and Gonzalo HIGUAIN.

I would also bring Lisandro LOPEZ because he gives you a lot of options, but he won't be going to South Africa because he had an argument with MARADONA and that's it. How else do you explain his exclusion after he scored with his first touch against Russia?

I know we have played this game here on Mundo in recent weeks (though I was very busy at that time and couldn't participate). I know you all have spoken your minds, but I had to talk a little bit about this and I have to reiterate how incredible afraid I am that Diego MARADONA will leave Diego MILITO out of our World Cup squad.

He is absolutely capable of doing that and include one Martín PALERMO that couldn't even record a shot on target at home against a Costa Rican side full of second-stringers.

In the near future we will continue to play around with names (we've got 94 players to choose from in this MARADONA era!) and we will continue to speculate on who's going to travel to South Africa in our quest to win the World Cup and who's going to be left out by a manager that in a perfect world shouldn't be anywhere near our national team (with that job).