Gattuso is loved in Italy as a World Cup winner and for being who he is. Will that be enough?

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Claudio Ranieri stepped out for the press conference in Rome. As he pulled back a chair and the cameras flashed, a mischievous smile appeared on his face.

For once, Ranieri was not being unveiled as a new coach. Instead, he was the one doing the unveiling.

Beside him was Gian Piero Gasperini, his successor at Roma. Ranieri leaned into the microphone like a stand-up comedian. He had a joke to crack.

“Hello everyone,” he said. “I think this is the first time you get to see two coaches (at one press conference). But don’t be confused, eh. I still have a contract until June 30, so…”

The gag went down well. Everybody laughed. But it fell flat elsewhere in the city — the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) was still getting over Ranieri’s decision to turn down their offer to take over the national team.

Its president, Gabriele Gravina, thought he had an agreement on a job-share whereby Ranieri would combine his forthcoming executive role at Roma with guiding Italy along the road to the World Cup next summer. However, Ranieri had second thoughts about the idea.

The 73-year-old only returned to the touchline in November, six months after leaving what he had said would be his last job at Cagliari, because his hometown club were in such dire straits. If he had wished to continue coaching, rather than retreat back into (semi) retirement, he would have stayed on as Roma’s manager.

This was a double blow for the FIGC in their search for a replacement for Luciano Spalletti, who Gravina fired a couple of weeks ago following a 3-0 defeat away to Norway in Italy’s opening World Cup qualifier.

Italy have replaced Spalletti with Gennaro Gattuso (Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)

First of all, Ranieri’s reputation hasn’t been this high since he won the 2015-16 Premier League with 5,000-1 outsiders Leicester City. Over the past nine months, he has resembled a nonno, the grandfather figure of the Italian game, with a timeless winning recipe. Only Hansi Flick’s Barcelona picked up more points than Roma in the second half of last season across Europe’s top five leagues.

Second, Ranieri, in his new position as adviser to Roma’s owners, The Friedkin Group, was announcing Gasperini — someone who would have been another outstanding candidate to lead the national team.

For context, the managerial carousel started at warp-speed this summer and left the FIGC with whiplash.

The initial uncertainty over Antonio Conte’s future at new champions Napoli caused Milan to accelerate their pursuit of Massimiliano Allegri, who would have figured as another contender for the Italy gig had he been available.

Brazil had spent more than a year courting Carlo Ancelotti to manage their national team, and finally got their man. Saudi Arabian club Al Hilal then threw more money at Inter’s Simone Inzaghi than the FIGC could ever muster. Gravina also didn’t have a job to offer until after that obliteration in Oslo on June 6.

Which raised the question: shouldn’t he have dismissed Spalletti already, after defending champions Italy’s exit from the European Championship against Switzerland in the round of 16 last summer?

It would have been premature to act then. Spalletti had Gravina’s gratitude for leaving his post-Napoli sabbatical to take over Italy in difficult circumstances following Roberto Mancini’s resignation to manage Saudi’s national team, and the Euros came less than a year later. Spalletti deserved more time. With hindsight, it is easy to say that the interim was a waste of that time.

So the options available to Gravina were limited.

He leaned on Gianluigi Buffon, the country’s most capped player, who became a member of his executive team after retiring in 2023, to help with the process of identifying Italy’s next coach. Buffon had initially been made head of the delegation when he hung up the gloves — a counsellor and motivator the players could turn to for wisdom. Reports abounded late last summer that he considered his position after the Euros.

Instead, Buffon broadened his remit. Since completing a course in the role, he is closer to a sporting director now. Drama never seems to be far away. One newspaper, La Sicilia, claimed Buffon almost quit when the return of Mancini, who only lasted 14 months in Saudi, was apparently put on the table.

Buffon skilfully handled questions about it at another press conference in Rome this week. “As is the case every year, my contract expires on June 30, so the issue of resigning has never arisen.”

Good save, Gigi.

Next to Buffon and Gravina at the Parco dei Principi hotel sat the national team’s new manager.

He was not a foreigner, though the paucity of choice had sparked debate in Italy about whether it was time to appeal to someone like Jose Mourinho.

In the end, the FIGC settled on one of the heroes of 2006, when Italy last won the World Cup: Gennaro Gattuso.

“This is a dream come true,” Gattuso said. “I hope I am up to the task.”

So does the rest of Italy.

Missing out on qualification for a third consecutive World Cup doesn’t bear thinking about.

The explanations Buffon and Gravina offered for the hire came back to one intangible essential: vibes. They talked about passion, fire in the belly, and knowing what it means to represent your country.

Gattuso won the World Cup with Italy in 2006 (Ben Radford/Getty Images)

“No one can ever take away Rino’s fighting spirit and determination,” Buffon said. Gravina admired his self-“sacrifice” and the way he dealt with media scrutiny while coach of Milan and later Napoli.

On the one hand, it is entirely understandable why the FIGC has gone in this direction. Italy were insipid against the Swiss in that Euros defeat this time last year. There was no soul in their recent performance in Norway either, when they found themselves three goals down at half-time. Gattuso will surely shock them back to life.

And yet he was at pains to present himself as more than just a hype man. “Everyone thinks of Gattuso as all heart and grit, but today I wouldn’t put (that) Gattuso in my team, because of the way I want to play,” he said.

At the same time, the 47-year-old spoke repeatedly about team spirit, identity, and the need for Italian players to reconnect with their national team.

His desire to emulate Marcello Lippi was less about also winning the World Cup and more about bonding a group of players and fostering the togetherness — the sense of belonging — which underpinned that 2006 team. Some members of it — Gianluca Zambrotta and Simone Perrotta — will be on his coaching staff, along with Leonardo Bonucci, one of the leaders of the Mancini-led Euro 2020-winning side.

Cesare Prandelli, Italy coach from 2010-14, is also set to return. He will coordinate the development of Italy’s next generation, focusing on the age groups below the senior side and acting in support of the youth-team coaches, as Arrigo Sacchi did a decade ago.

The new setup has not won the approval that Spalletti’s or Conte’s appointments received in the past. Both were viewed for what they are: world-class coaches.

Gattuso, by comparison, can’t seem to stay in a job for more than two years, and the Coppa Italia he won with Napoli in an empty Stadio Olimpico during the pandemic was quickly eclipsed by the aforementioned managers winning the title with that club. He has bounced around posts in Switzerland, Greece, Spain, France and Croatia, also managed Palermo and Pisa (twice) and had talks with Tottenham Hotspur.

Gravina’s praise for his temperament amid the media glare also left one with the impression that the FIGC president can’t be on social media, where the reels of Gattuso’s press conference shenanigans have guaranteed virality.

His “sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe s**t” fulmination while at OFC Crete accurately describes Italy’s past 15 years on the international stage. Good at the Euros (let’s try to forget about last summer). Bad at making World Cups.

Gattuso’s most recent job saw him rescind his contract with Hajduk Split this month after ‘only’ a third-place finish, and Gravina particularly appreciated his promotion of academy players. “This year, I played with (players born in) 2005, 2006 and 2007,” Gattuso said.

What everyone else appreciated about his season in Croatia were the memes.

Gattuso shaved off his beard for the first time in 22 years (it was for a good cause; a local cancer charity); looking for hydration after a game, he grabbed a sponsored bottle during a press conference, took a swig, pulled a face, then looked at the label and realised it was coconut water.

More famous was the mix of Spanish and English he spoke when confronting a critic, TV pundit Josko Jelicic, live on air. “I don’t give the hand to you because you speak too much,” he bristled.

This is Gattuso: unapologetically himself and endearingly so.

Italians love him. He is a legend not only for helping win the World Cup but for being who he is. Is that enough? Conte still represents the perfect combination of motivation and strategy. Gattuso would like to think he offers something similar. But the results, so far, have not backed it up.

Nevertheless, Gattuso believes Italy have the players to do better than they showed under Spalletti. Personality clashes aside, the problems of his predecessor, however, reveal the significant difficulty level of the job awaiting him.

Gattuso being unveiled on Thursday (Paolo Bruno/Getty Images)

That a coach as skilled as Spalletti couldn’t lift this team — either to make them play to their potential or become greater than the sum of their parts — is a concern.

“I don’t leave a great Italy,” Spalletti said in his last media engagement. “You can’t do differently; there are many games (the calendar causes fatigue and compresses the time available to train), many foreign players (68 per cent of Serie A), and the number of players available is limited (because of injury). Then there are those who do not play for major clubs, those who do not play in European competitions, and others who are still developing.”

One imagines Ranieri won’t regret resisting the temptation to coach his country. He appeared to show wisdom in knowing when to say: ‘No’. Gattuso, by contrast, didn’t hesitate in saying: ‘Yes’ to Gravina.

He obviously needs it more.

For Gattuso, the inevitable hassle of the Italy job is superseded by the honour it brings. What that tells us about his judgement, and that of the FIGC, will become clear over the next year.

(Top photo: Paolo Bruno/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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