At the risk of getting into a level of detail that's over your head (i.e. any), Valdano and Burruchaga were decent, but that's pretty much it. And Napoli were really nothing special. Pretty much every authority agrees on Maradona's ability to drag unpromising teams to levels of achievement they'd never have got near without him. This makes him unique in the pantheon of greats. After all, Cruyff had a great side around him, as did Pele and Messi has had the same. Maradona stands out by his ability to achieve great things without that support.
You may dispute his greatness all you like, but history bears this out.
I've a strong suspicion that prior to this exchange, young WES had absolutely no idea whatsoever of what Maradona did or didn't do at Barcelona - or what they were like as a side. After all he did appear to turn 180 degrees in his assessment of Diego's performance there in the space of two posts.
He literally went from saying Maradona had never reached Messi's heights 'even while at Barca' to criticising him for 'making little of his time there' prompted solely by me pointing out that it was pretty much the nadir of his club career.
In short, WES is bullsh1tting something fierce here.
Wrong on all accounts, I'm afraid. I was fully aware that Diego had spent several years under-achieving at Barca, other than a rather terrific fight involving all sorts of kicking which still makes me smile when I see it.
The point I made, which you seem to have misunderstood, was that he had not spent his career surrounded by average players at Napoli and with Argentina, he went to Barca and had little success and you can hardly argue that Barca were a small club hence 'even at Barca'.
And as I said, I'm not judging him solely on his time there, merely pointing out that it needs to be considered. As I also said in another thread, I consider him the second best player in history, second only to Messi, so it's not like I don't recognize his genius.