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[The_Demon]

Aaron Lennon though. Could be huge winging.

Great player.

Agreed,lennon is world class

[Dynamite Kid]

Agreed,lennon is world class

I think Lennon can be a key weapon, also if Joe Cole, Walcott hit it off at the world cup playing on the other side then we could have a potent attacking force, that said we need Theo to start well, if he starts bad he could get worse.

[AssasinKing]

Agreed,lennon is world class

People need to stop using those words so easily...

He is a very good winger, but no way in hell world class lol

[Texanballer]

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Argentina coach Diego Maradona named his final 23-man squad for the World Cup on Wednesday, which includes Lionel Messi of Barcelona, Carlos Tevez of Manchester City and most of the country's other big stars.

The big surprise was the inclusion of defender Ariel Garce, who played his first international match for Argentina earlier this month against Haiti.

The list released on Wednesday includes tremendous power up front, led by Messi, Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain.

Argentina faces Canada on Monday at River Plate's stadium in Buenos Aires, in what is expected to be its last warm-up before the World Cup. The 1978 and '86 champion opens on June 12 in South Africa against Nigeria and also faces Greece and South Korea in Group B.

Argentine officials confirmed for the first time that the team will depart for South Africa on May 28.

Maradona, who presented a provisional 30-man squad last week, selected a group that includes three goalkeepers, seven defenders, seven at midfield and six forwards.

Maradona will have as many weapons as any coach in the World Cup.

He is likely to start Messi with Tevez or Higuain up front with a midfield anchored by Javier Mascherano, Juan Sebastian Veron, Jonas Gutierrez and Angel Di Maria. The four starters on defense are expected to be Nicolas Otamendi, Martin Demichelis, Walter Samuel and Gabriel Heinze.

The starting goalkeeper is almost sure to be Sergio Romero of Dutch club AZ Alkmaar.

Garce was one of the few surprises, having played only once with the national team in a 4-0 victory over Haiti earlier this month. Garce was suspended for six months for doping in 2006 and plays for the Argentine club Colon. He was preferred to Inter Milan defender and captain Javier Zanetti.

Argentina struggled to reach the World Cup, qualifying fourth the last automatic spot from South America. Maradona has been in charge for 19 months but has failed to show the same great flair as a coach that he had as a player.

Maradona was invisible on Wednesday, but was expected to hold a news conference over the weekend. The Argentine federation released the player list on its website, which was clogged for several hours as fans scurried to see the final squad.

Argentina has stumbled in recent World Cups.

The Albicelestes were eliminated in the quarterfinals in the 2006, and were knocked out in the group stage in 2002. In 1998 in France, Argentina also reached the quarterfinals before being ousted. In 1994 in the United States, Argentina reached the final 16 before going out. In that World Cup his last as a player Maradona was suspended after the second match for testing positive for what was described as a "cocktail" of performance-enhancing drugs including ephedrine.

Argentina lost the final at the 1990 tournament in Italy, which came four years after its World Cup title in Mexico.

Squad:

Goalkeepers: Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar), Mariano Andujar (Catania), Diego Pozo (Colon).

Defenders: Nicolas Otamendi (Velez Sarsfield), Martin Demichelis (Bayern Munich), Walter Samuel (Inter Milan), Gabriel Heinze (Marseille), Nicolas Burdisso (AS Roma), Ariel Garce (Colon), Clemente Rodriguez (Estudiantes).

Midfielders: Jonas Gutierrez (Newcastle), Juan Sebastian Veron (Estudiantes), Javier Mascherano (Liverpool), Angel Di Maria (Benfica), Javier Pastore (Palermo), Maxi Rodriguez (Liverpool), Mario Bolatti (Fiorentina).

Forwards: Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid), Carlos Tevez (Manchester City), Diego Milito (Inter Milan), Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid), Martin Palermo (Boca Juniors).

[JoeKickAss]

Gago got ****ed by not even making the 30.

[Texanballer]

Sir Alex Ferguson may add just one more player to his Manchester United squad this summer as he plots to regain the Premier League title from Chelsea.

United chief executive David Gill has indicated funds are available to his manager to spend this summer, but Ferguson revealed he is happy with the balance of his squad, which finished a point behind Chelsea in the title race.

The United manager has already signed rising Mexican star Javier Hernandez from Guadalajara and defender Chris Smalling from Fulham, and a raft of new faces had been expected to follow. But Ferguson will place his trust his existing squad and his latest crop of youth and reserve players if he is unable to pinpoint any new signings.

Ferguson said: "In the market today it's very, very difficult and the structure of our squad is good in terms of ages, the balance, the numbers and there's a lot of good young players. Sometimes you have to trust in all the development of the last few years and I'm going to stick with that, or most of it.

"There may be one signing and maybe we'd like to get a good player to the club, of course, but it's not easy in the present day climate and I've nothing definite to tell you because we're still assessing whoever's available and the difficulties in terms of who you'd bring in."

Gill added: "Hernandez and Smalling are signings we've already made and the other point to bear in mind is that the Premier League is bringing in squad limits next year of 25, which we clearly operate [in European competitions] but is now coming to the Premier League.

"There will be unlimited under-21s and other rules and we'll be taking all that into consideration."

To that end, Ferguson also revealed he would not be replacing goalkeeper Ben Foster with a new signing, instead promoting England Under-21 international Ben Amos to the first-team squad alongside Edwin Van der Sar and Tomasz Kuszczak.

Foster is close to completing a £6 million move to Birmingham and the United manager is confident 20-year-old Amos has a bright future at Old Trafford.

"When we decided to let Ben (Foster) go, we were in the process of letting a good young goalkeeper, Ben Amos, go out on loan," Ferguson said.

"He's in the England Under-21 team but we can only accommodate three goalkeepers. So when the situation with Ben's future at Manchester United came into it and we agreed to let him go, we stopped Ben Amos from going on loan. He will now be our third goalkeeper, he's very talented and has a good future ahead of him."

All three keepers are likely to travel across the Atlantic with the United squad this summer. The club will have a training camp in Chicago followed by friendlies against Celtic in Toronto on July 16, the Philadelphia Union in Philadelphia on July 21, the Kansas City Wizards in Kansas four days later, and the MLS All-Stars in Houston on July 28.

Ferguson will give his World Cup players leave of absence from the tour, which will move on to Mexico and a game against Guadalajara, which was agreed as part of the deal to sign 21-year-old forward Hernandez.

Depending on Mexico's progress in South Africa, Hernandez is pencilled in to feature in the game.

Ferguson added: "It depends when his last game is for Mexico. Normally we give the players 28 days' rest but in the case of Hernandez we'll bring him to Philadelphia as soon as his games with Mexico are finished.

"The simple reason is he's young and I think he can handle coming in for training but, more importantly, it's for him to integrate into the squad because he doesn't know any of the players."

[Monkz]

It's scary just how much talent Argentina has up front.

[Monkz]

Georgie Thompson is gorgeous and yet she's dating that little fart Dec.

[MOTHER DUCKER]

People need to stop using those words so easily...

He is a very good winger, but no way in hell world class lol

Exactly.. imo there are very few World class wingers atm, he is just far to erratic and the final ball (all though improved) is not the best. Like we have seen vs Evra though he has spurts were he can be a world class talent, similar to Nani..

I can see these wingers being fantastic coming of the bench late in games/extra time (Lennon, SWP, Walcott). Im just not sure as starters they are whats needed. With Cole coming into form and Milner being impressive and more steady i'd like to see them start.

[Chunk..]

It's scary just how much talent Argentina has up front.

On paper, i think they have the best squad in the world. That said, they won't win the world cup.