Minor British Institutions: The Italian football manager

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The Italian football manager is much the most distinctive among the foreign coaches now in control of our national game.

Not for him the perplexing outbursts of his other European counterparts; nor the compulsion to self-advertise exhibited by that Portuguese bloke who was gaffer at Chelsea.

No, the Italian manager exudes the calm authority of a culture that understands the vital importance of football but is also resigned to the injustices of a capricious world that can produce Rome and the Renaissance as well Asti Spumante.

It's this approach that has allowed Fabio Capello to survive a World Cup which would surely have sent off any lesser breed, especially the English one.

And if that were not enough, there's also the effortless Italian sense of style, which, you must have noticed, has allowed Roberto Mancini of Manchester City to persuade our entire male population not only to wear a scarf, but to tie it in that poncey way as well.