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An early memory of visiting Milan involves walking through arrivals at Malpensa and being confronted by Andriy Shevchenko. Our meeting, then at least, was in portrait rather than in person. Shevchenko was the face, the masculine muse, of a monochrome Armani campaign. The poster showed him standing against a wall, pinstripe suit loosely buttoned at the lapel, his silhouette cast on marble tile. Advertisement “So that’s what a Ballon d’Or winner looks like, ” I remember thinking. It was a time when Serie A was still haute couture and the Premier League distinctly high-street by comparison, until, that is, Jose Mourinho bestrode the touchline in an Armani cashmere overcoat. This flashback occurred to me when the news of Giorgio Armani’s passing broke last week. The hashtag #Il Re trended on X. It was no empty honorific. Those referring to Armani as The King perhaps believed the House of Armani was a better representation of Italy than the House of Savoy. As the columnist Gabriele Romagnoli observed in La Repubblica: “Giorgio Armani represented Italy: not as it is, but as we Italians would like it to be and as foreigners dream it to be. ” Raised in Piacenza, the hometown of Shevchenko’s strike partner Pippo Inzaghi, Armani made style a core component of the Italian image and Italian identity. “I was learning to play like an Italian, to think like an Italian, to behave like an Italian, to move like an Italian, to go on holiday where the Italians go on holiday, to feel Italian, bit by bit, while remaining, always, proudly Ukrainian, ” Shevchenko reflected on his first year at Milan. “There were two steps missing for the transformation to be complete: I didn’t eat like an Italian, I didn’t dress like an Italian. ” That changed after an introduction to Armani. Shevchenko’s life was altered forever. He met his wife, a model, at a 30 Odd Foot of Grunts concert because the lead singer, Russell Crowe, had also been invited to Milan Fashion Week. Armani, who became a close friend, then asked Shevchenko to bring the curtain down at one of his shows. In the front row as Shevchenko paced down the catwalk were Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston and George Clooney. “He didn’t possess the models’ confidence, ” Armani said. “But his character hypnotised everybody in attendance. ” Advertisement Trivial as it may seem, Armani’s approach to fashion and the aesthetics of Italian football are seamless. Coaches in Italy often describe themselves as tailors. They make their teams to measure. Nothing is off-the-rack. There is no one-size-fits-all. It’s why the very best managers in Italy are not associated with a single system or tactic like tiki-taka or gegenpressing. Carlo Ancelotti’s Milan, for instance, was different from his Chelsea, his Paris Saint-Germain, his Bayern Munich and his Real Madrid. The fabric was never the same. The seasons changed. He cut his cloth accordingly. Among Armani’s most iconic pieces were his deconstructed blazers. He removed the lining and the padding. He got rid of the inessential so the material would contour the body and flow with it unobstructed. They were minimalist. Uncomplicated. Elegant in austerity rather than ostentation. This is how Italy’s most successful coaches think too. When Ancelotti, Max Allegri and Antonio Conte say “football is simple”, it tends to leave modern football fans who have been exposed to more and more football theory greatly dissatisfied. They have come to expect more. They want philosophy, projects, data sets and pitch decks. But as Allegri says, “a grey suit never goes out of fashion. A navy one never goes out of fashion… Ancelotti seemed to go out of fashion but I have to compliment him. Fashions come and go. The classics remain and Ancelotti is like a navy suit. ” That’s the Armani code. That and a famous eye for detail. It’s altering and adjusting for the best look possible. Maybe my favourite anecdote from all the tributes to Armani was from Olimpia Milano, the basketball team he came to own. “Armani used to come to every Olimpia match, ” Dan Peterson, their former coach, recalled to Il Corriere della Sera. “When we first met, I was wearing one of his suits, which had been tailor-made for me. He didn’t say a word, but as he shook my hand, he adjusted my cuff. La classe! ” In football, as in fashion, it’s the details that matter and one that didn’t escape my attention last week was how Liverpool cut their cloth for the Champions League. You didn’t have to be a student of the Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can’t Read Good to realise Federico Chiesa’s name had been omitted from the squad for the league phase of the competition. Advertisement Arne Slot opted for a younger model instead — Rio Ngumoha — a decision that must have pricked Chiesa like a dressmaker’s pin. The noise at Anfield when his late volley gave Liverpool the lead against Bournemouth on opening night was a possible kickstart moment for his career. The signal, however, was Liverpool’s zeal to promote Ngumoha, who scored a similarly exhilarating goal at St James’ Park, and the way they pushed ahead with the signing of Alexander Isak regardless. Chiesa has continued to make cameos since optimistically telling Sky Italia: “I’ve just got to wait and make sure I’m ready like I was tonight when the Mister gives me 10, 15, 20 minutes, a half. ” Unfortunately, those opportunities won’t be in the Champions League, football’s most prestigious competition. He is on the fringes of his club team and country. Chiesa hasn’t been called up for an Italy squad since the Euros, and it hardly comes as a surprise given he has still only made one Premier League start. As Italy’s new coach Gennaro Gattuso observed at his first get-together, if there’s one thing the national team lacks, it isn’t wide players. “I had a chat with Chiesa and it was a decision we made together, ” Gattuso said by way of explanation for his decision to leave Chiesa on Merseyside for the qualifiers with Estonia and Israel. “He didn’t feel ready to return because he wanted to feel 100 per cent fit. We made the decision together. Giacomo Raspadori has also had limited playing time so far (with Atletico Madrid), but then there are also players with qualities that we are looking for. Raspadori has something different in mind. ” Raspadori scored and set up another two goals from the bench in a 5-0 win over the Estonians in Bergamo. He then went back-t0-back as a super sub, and tidily finished an intricate move against Israel too. Nearly three years since his anterior cruciate ligament tear, Chiesa hasn’t been able to recapture the form he fleetingly showed for a couple of games at the Euros in 2021. The 27-year-old has, in some respects, always been fast fashion. Chiesa had the brand that other more consistent players like Domenico Berardi, Matteo Politano and Riccardo Orsolini didn’t. He had prestige buyers like Juventus and Liverpool. But he hasn’t been durable or able to diversify his playing style and appears disposable after the window has shut. Napoli, the team most consistently linked with Chiesa, bought Noa Lang and presumably won’t have a position to fill in January. Wild, loose, a bit over the top, a bit mad. Up and down. Fierce. In bits. They cursed but ultimately weren’t cursed. Italy strutted. Italy stumbled. They got up, dusted themselves off and won. They were all over the place in search of a place at next summer’s World Cup. They were the image of their new coach, Gattuso. “Eleven Gattusos, ” Sandro Tonali said. Sometimes maybe good. Sometimes maybe… Nil-nil at half-time against Estonia. Twice behind against Israel, a game in which Alessandro Bastoni and Manuel Locatelli scored own goals and Gianluigi Donnarumma punched (a disallowed one) into his own net in Debrecen. The bandage wrapped around Gianluca Mancini’s head was wrapped around a nation. Everyone was dizzy. After winning 5-0 against Estonia, they came back to win 5-4 against Israel. It was a result demanded of Gattuso. It was also unexpected. Advertisement After losing their opening qualifier to Norway 3-0 in Oslo, a result that cost Luciano Spalletti his job, Gattuso set out not only to win Italy’s remaining games but to answer the press’s call to score enough goals to bring a tie-breaker like goal difference into play. The 47-year-old tried to manage expectations. Italy have never been a team to run up the score. Worse still they have stopped producing strikers. Or have they? Gattuso was cavalier against Estonia in going with two of them. He started Moise Kean and Mateo Retegui up front together. They were the top scorers in Serie A last season. It proved an inspired decision. Retegui scored twice against Estonia and set up Politano’s go-ahead goal against Israel, while the maturing Kean found the back of the net in both games, as did super sub Raspadori. The No 9 role no longer seems to be a problem for Italy. Balance and the baggage of missing out on the past couple of World Cups is the issue instead. “It was murder today, ” Gattuso told RAI seconds after the final whistle blew against Israel. “They caught us off guard a bit at the start, but every time we pushed forward, we put them in difficulty. Today our legs weren’t at their best, but that’s okay, it’s always like that when you play your second match. We’ll take the win, which was crucial. We’re crazy because the goals we let in were absurd. ” Perfect on paper, imperfect on the pitch, Italy nevertheless moved up into the play-off place with a game in hand on Israel. To qualify automatically they need to hope Norway drop points between now and their next meeting in November. Italy, in the meantime, have to work on their defending. It was ragged at times and Armani would probably tut at one or two of their faux pas. But at the end of the day the only runway Italy care about being on isn’t the one at Milan fashion week. It’s at Milan Malpensa. The airport from which they hope to fly out to next summer’s World Cup in the U. S, Canada and Mexico. (Top photo: Venturelli/Wire Image via Getty Images) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle James Horncastle covers Serie A for The Athletic. He joins from ESPN and is working on a book about Roberto Baggio. Follow James on Twitter @James Horncastle