Diego says it's destiny - Ossie

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Ricardo Villa and Ossie Ardiles speak to the media ahead of Maradona's first match in charge

Argentine World Cup winner and Tottenham star Ossie Ardiles says Diego Maradona saw it as his fate that he would become manager of his country.

Ardiles, in Glasgow for Maradona's first match in charge, said: "Diego believes very strongly in his destiny.

"Call it God or call it whatever you want, but he believes very, very strongly in that.

"Everybody knew that he was dying to be the manager of Argentina and now he has it, so we will see."

Ardiles and former Tottenham team-mate Ricardo Villa spoke to the media ahead of Argentina's friendly against Scotland and expressed their hopes for the new manager.

Villa said: "In Argentina we love attacking, skilful football. We have great individual players who can play nice attacking football. Diego can put it all together. We are expecting him to do great."

The duo were signed by Keith Burkinshaw for Spurs after helping host nation Argentina win the 1978 World Cup, a torrid finals for Scotland.

Almost a century before that, in 1891, a Scot called Alexander Watson Hutton travelled to South America and helped set up the Argentine Association Football League, South America's first proper national football association.

While the blue and white of Argentina never fails to excite supporters, Scotland have not managed to reach a World Cup Finals since France 98.

Ricardo Villa and Ossie Ardiles have high hopes for Maradona's reign

Asked for his opinion on why Scotland now struggled to produce players of the calibre of former Tottenham star Steve Archibald, Villa suggested the climate played its part.

"In Argentina we love football, and with the weather, it is possible to play football for a lot of months. I believe in Scotland it is more difficult to play outside," he said.

Though Maradona will be without the services of Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero, the Argentina team is nevertheless full of top players.

Yet, for Ardiles, only Barcelona's missing star can stand comparison with Maradona.

"Messi is the only one you would say who has the potential at least to be close to Diego," said Ardiles.

Inevitably, at a press conference in Glasgow and with Terry Butcher set to meet Maradona at Hampden, the 'Hand of God' goal came up.

Ardiles was keen to point out that it is just part and parcel of football.

"All of you Scottish people are very happy about what he did. You probably celebrate the first goal more than the second," suggested Ardiles.

"But, of course, people in England feel very aggrieved.

"I remember Joe Jordan scoring a goal like this against Wales, a qualifying game. Because of this game Wales did not go to the World Cup."

Ardiles added: "If you are a centre forward, you could be Gary Lineker, Andy Gray, Joe Jordan, Maradona, Steve Archibald - I know that Steve would do it, definitely! - you would not be worth your salt if the cross came in and you didn't do anything possible to score a goal.

"This is the way that football has always been played. It has always been a sport of the people. When you have a throw-in, you try to win 10 yards.

"This is the culture of football. It's very unfair. Every single player in the world has done things like that."