The Further Italianization of England

For a league which draws snores and a national team which draws derision, those Italians must be doing something right. Everywhere you look in England, they just keep popping up. From all the way at the tippety-top of the English national team down to the Championship, there’s an Italian to be found.

Of course it’s a bit more than just Italians and there’s a bigger picture to be painted with the decreasingly “English” Premier League, but for a country which won the World Cup four years ago featuring the only entirely-home based side, they’ve sure begun to find homes in England – and not just on the pitch.

The latest, Massimo Cellino, is among those planning a take over of the already Italianized and financially-needy West Ham – Gianluca and Gianfranco nod “si” (Alessandro is too busy getting his hair done). Most who follow calcio will know of Cellino as the owner of stubbornly resilient Cagliari, a team which made a living in Serie A with what was a Serie B roster for years – which alone should throw most Hammers fans into his camp. Of course a year-plus of that time was spent with a For Sale sign slapped outside the Sant’Elia. It hasn’t gone and Cellino has remained, watching his team crash, two years after escaping the plummet by their chinny chin chins, the calcio royal rumble for European spots for the second year in a row.

A successful takeover probably won’t mean much in the grand scheme, but it does say a little about the increasing green, white and red dotting the stands. A few of England’s “prominent” Italians:

England gaffer: Fabio Capello
Manager atop the table: Carlo Ancelotti
Manager of the wealthiest team: Roberto Mancini
Biggest non-Man City transfer in the summer of ‘09: Alberto Aquilani
Biggest flop: Alberto Aquilani
Best addition of a WAG clearly in it only for the money: Flavio Briatore

But perhaps the most telling number comes from this:

English managers at the beginning of ‘08-09: 10
Italian managers at the same time: 0

English managers today: 6
Italian managers today: 3

(Only Gianfranco Zola was a direct replacement for Alan Curbishley at West Ham.)

Sam Allardyce nailed it on the head recently by claiming Italian managers are “flavour of the month” – though he spelled it incorrectly – and then joked he should’ve changed it to “Allar-dee-chay” three years ago (why do all the best bits get snipped?). And he was right (about the flavor of the month thing, not the name change thing), and much of that is due to Fabio Capello & Giovanni Trapattoni. Football’s about tactics and Italians, for all the failings elsewhere, are supreme tacticians.

This, much like one league’s dominance, is a fad and will, to a degree, pass, as one day Serie A returns to glory and all the Italians go rushing home. But for now, they’re the hot bit. On the sidelines, on the pitch, in the back staff and now, perhaps, in the owner’s box.

Just don’t ask an Italian to build you a new stadium.

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Category: England, World Football