Argentina are better than England

Look at Pablo Aimar when he went from River Plate to Spain: it took him a year to acclimatise to Spanish football, but now Valencia have got a great player. Argentina too. Aimar is young but could have a big tournament because he fits in with Bielsa's high-speed, high-tempo style. The other key should be Crespo, who I think is likely to earn the main striker's place ahead of Gabriel Batistuta.

In Argentina, though, we are puzzled by why Bielsa has left out Javier Saviola, the brilliant young Barcelona striker, yet gone for Claudio Caniggia instead. Caniggia's experienced and a good player but he's an old man! Everyone in Argentina wanted Saviola but we have to respect Bielsa's decision.

But I'm not so happy that Bielsa himself threatened to walk out of his job as coach because of money. Okay, so he arranged his deal before the economic crisis began and so is not being paid as much as he originally thought, but still it's a prestigious job and ordinary Argentinians would never have a chance of earning a salary like his. Because he's Argentinian I believe he has to be with the people.

People say Bielsa has done an excellent job but some things worry me. Our qualifying results were great but when you watched the performances, they were not consistently good over the whole 90 minutes. He has some great players who'd play well for, say 15 minutes, and do enough to win the match.

But that was just in South America, where national teams are not having a good time at the moment. Argentina are on a higher rung than Uruguay and Brazil, yet I'd still never rule out Brazil. They'll do well.

Iwas shocked, though, to watch Argentina win so comfortably in Germany last month. They looked very poor, the worst German side I've seen for years. Down the left, Juan Pablo Sorin was our best man that night. He's a very dynamic player, based in Brazil but soon off to Italy, who could be another star at the tournament.

As for England, I believe they have their best national team I've seen in the last 20 years. They are young, though. I went back to Tottenham recently and saw Glenn Hoddle again, and it reminded me that he was the best English player I ever saw. David Beckham and Michael Owen are up there too and I think most Argentinians expect and hope to see Beckham play against them.

England-Argentina. It's a great derby for us and for you, but I just hope that we can keep down the ugly side surrounding it.

I want to see a game played with 100 per cent commitment, a game that everyone will say was great. People get crazy about this game but I have to keep saying: 'It's a big match for both of us but in the end it's only a game of football'.