The Answerman, football journalist Jerrad Peters, takes your question on Maradona’s return to the Argentinean national team as well as the shakeup at Chelsea and what it means to the game.

Can Maradona win another World Cup for Argentina?
-Matthew, Boston

Over 100,000 people around the world celebrated New Year’s last Thursday, October 30. They are now living in the year 48 A.D., 48 years After Diego. They are the worldwide congregation of Iglesia Maradoniana, the Church of Maradona. And this year’s festivities came with an added blessing. On his birthday, Diego Maradona was appointed manager of the Argentinean national team. Let the people rejoice.

I think it’s important to provide some perspective before answering your question. The Church of Maradona is no joke. You can watch clips of their worship services on YouTube. And while this represents the extreme of Maradona’s following, many Argentinean football fans can be counted within the broader context. This is a country still very much in love with its god.

But can he inspire his players to glory? The key word here is “inspire.” And he certainly can. Nobody believes that Maradona will be drawing tactics or mulling over strategies. His assistants—Pedro Troglio, Jose Luis Brown, and Sergio Goycochea—will be assigned those tasks. Instead, Maradona’s role will be similar to that of Jurgen Klinsmann at the last World Cup. As a national icon and figurehead of Argentinean football, he will be the motivation behind the instructions, the inspiration behind the science.

Of course, it could all go horribly wrong. Given his excessive and sometimes outrageous personality, Maradona’s tenure as national team boss could be a magnificent and very spectacular catastrophe. Don’t bet against it happening. Be assured, for better or worse, his stint at the helm will be a memorable one.

If he leaves his deputies to do their jobs and focuses his energies on picking the squad and providing some inspirational magic, Argentina can contend for the World Cup. They could have anyway. The squad is simply too good not to. But if he goes off the boil and embroils himself in rows with some of his better players (Lionel Messi and Juan Roman Riquelme immediately spring to mind), the whole thing could crumble in a hurry.

Somehow, I get the feeling that Maradona is about to write another, unforgettable chapter in his life’s story. Whether it’s unforgettable a la 1986 or 1994 remains to be seen.

Chelsea just fired 15 front office staff. Is this part of a growing trend?
-Tony, Winnipeg

Like many of you, I was delighted to see Roman Abramovich cull his bloated front office staff. Chelsea, after all, are a club that went from excess to excess over the first four years of his ownership. To see them humbled, even slightly, is the source of much delight to millions of football fans around the world.

And yes, this is part of a larger trend—in two areas, actually. Chelsea, Newcastle, and Tottenham Hotspur were among the first English clubs to employ technical directors to oversee scouting and player transactions. We all know how that turned out at White Hart Lane. And the restructuring at St. James’ Park is only in its preliminary phase. The sacking of 15 scouts from Chelsea’s global force is just the beginning of similar action at Stamford Bridge.

This will almost certainly spell the end of the road for Frank Arnesen. Chelsea’s technical director has never been far from controversy since he moved to the club from Spurs in 2005. Indeed, the departure of Jose Mourinho can be largely attributed to the presence of the meddling 52-year-old. But with two-thirds of his scouting staff having been shown the door, there can’t be much of a role left for him at the club.

Secondly, Abramovich stroked 15 employees with annual salaries approaching $200,000 apiece from the books. At the same time, he notified manager Luiz Felipe Scolari that there would be no transfer funds available until at least July. The two announcements were not unrelated. The ongoing economic crisis has wreaked havoc in the football world, and we are only beginning to scratch the surface of the eventual fallout. This was part of it. The bankruptcy of West Ham’s shirt sponsor XL Vacations was another. So, too, was the failure of  Lanksbanki—the Icelandic bank and primary employer of Hammers chairman Bjorgolfur Gudmindsson.

An example I like to use when describing how the market turbulence has affected football involves the sales of Newcastle and Manchester City. On September 1, with the stock market meltdown still days away, Abu Dhabi United Group completed a hasty $411million takeover of Manchester City before splashing $67million on Brazilian forward Robinho. Two weeks later, Mike Ashley put Newcastle United up for sale. There were no takers. There still aren’t. Within the span of 14 days, the bottom fell out of the football market. No one is willing to absorb annual losses to prop up a hobby-team until the economy stabilizes.

This might also be positive for football. What we could be seeing is the beginning of the end of the football oligarch. Even the wealthiest entrepreneurs, Russian billionaires, and Middle-Eastern oilmen may decide to keep away from professional sports in the future. That, or they’ll opt to operate their clubs with a sound, profitable business strategy. Either way, football would only stand to benefit.

Have a question about football? Email your query to jerradpeters@gmail.com