I may be endangering my menswear journalist credentials with this confession, but I’ll admit it: sometimes, I pay more attention to the touchline than the pitch. Don’t get me wrong – I love football and I care about who wins (as a proud Mancunian, I’ll always support whichever team isn’t Manchester City), but ever since football managers stopped wearing tracksuits and started dressing like actual human beings I find myself increasingly drawn to the sideline as a shopping window for what men should wear. Forget players; football managers are some of the most stylish men on the planet.
Every weekend they give us fascinating insight into how clothes can influence our perceptions of who’s in charge, who’s got personality and who’s just clueless. I realised just how valuable their unwitting style tips are last season, whilst explaining to my nephew why Pep Guardiola wearing a cashmere crew neck looks nothing like Jürgen Klopp’s outfit of choice: “They’re sending completely different messages with their clothes.” I sounded like a right bellend, even to myself. But look closer and football managers are teaching all of us blokes some of the most useful style lessons there are.
Ignore the players for a moment. They’ll always have you believing that football fashion revolves around visible branding, bigger and more expensive watches than you’ll ever need, and odd-coloured tailoring that photographs like a pile of rubbish.
Managers, on the other hand, are expected to look professional without being stuffy, authoritative but not aloof, smart but not fussy.
They have to strike the balance of dressing like a man who has to be respected, but might also have to run down the touchline at any moment or spend 90 minutes+ stood in the rain. Sound familiar? That’s because most of us need a wardrobe that can send similar signals, sans the 4,000-strong crowd judging your outfit choices. im1979/Document That stock.adobe.com Let’s start with my preseason favourite: Pep Guardiola.
Watching him progress from Barcelona, to Bayern, to Manchester City has been a masterclass in remaining yourself whilst adapting to your surrounds. When he first burst onto the British scene, Pep’s sharp suits, skinny ties and thinly cut body-language screamed foreign transplant. It was impossible not to hear that distinct Europeanaccent when you looked at him.
But whilst Guardiola’s core style tenets have remained the same, he’s adapted to no longer look so…well, Pep-ish. The hyper-formal tailoring has mostly been replaced with fine-gauge knitwear, smarter trousers, and those hilariously pristine Puma trainers that tell you he cares about details but not enough to care about what he wears on his feet. What we can learn from Guardiola is that once you’re comfortable in your own style you know which “rules” are important to you and which can be bent or changed depending on where you are.
Sure, his outfits have changed as he’s learned his way around British sensibilities, but he’s never looked like he’s wearing an outfit – he’s just evolved as a manager and his wardrobe has evolved with him. Isn’t that the dream for all of us when we enter a new workplace or social circle? And then you have Klopp, who wears the complete opposite of Guardiola but is just as effective on the touchline.
Baseball cap? Cheque. Quilted puffa jacket?
Cheque. Occasionally some hilariously outdated tracksuit bottoms? You bet.
Klopp has mastered the art of looking like he couldn’t care less about what he’s wearing while simultaneously creating one of the most identifiable styles in football. Him and his gut haven’t just changed the game, they’ve changed how we dress for it. His outfits may seem thrown together, but every piece of clothing he wears is serving a purpose to reinforce his brand of utterly loveable hysteria.
Oh, and did I mention he usually pairs those jeans with a pair of £120 New Balance trainers and a club sponsored windbreaker? Klopp may rail against government spending, but that won’t stop him from endorsing some outrageously lucrative sponsorship deals. Trust me, I spent time training as a fashion editor once and heard a member of said team describe Klopp’s wardrobe as “dad clothes”.
Newsflash – -Klopp looks amazing because it suits his personality. If you find those clothes begrudgingly comfy because you’ve hit 30, you look great wearing them. Hell, still wear them at 50 if that’s your speed.
My point is, when your wardrobe stops feeling like an extension of yourself and starts feeling like a reluctant necessity you’ve lost the plot. Never forget that there’s a guy out there forcing himself to wear some ridiculous sack costume because it’s trendy, whilst the man who found what suits him best – even if it is objectively dad-ish – will always look miles more put together. José Mourinho is another prime example.
Throughout his career you can clearly see his relationship with the media, fans and football establishment change through his clothes. When he first took over at Chelsea he was borderlinePostingPicasso with the Italian tailoring. That puffa coat killed me.
As the years have gone on and his relationship with English football frayed, you’ll notice he’s dressed markedly less ‘I need you to know I’m The Special One’ and a lot more ‘Mate I couldn’t care less what you think.’ What matters here isn’t whether you’re an early Mourinho stylist or a late one. Both are wonderful, we stan them both. The clever bit is analysing how his outfits corresponded to his career situation at the time.
When you’re trying to prove yourself dressing too casually can make you look like you’re not taking things seriously enough. Add an extra layer of smartness to show you mean business. Once you’ve established yourself you can loosen the tie a little.
Trust me, I’ve watched highly paid adults do this dance across offices for decades. It just so happens football managers do it on a touchline every weekend. These guys (particularly British managers like Potter) have nailed what I like to call considered casual.
Clothing that clearly requires some thought but doesn’t looktryhard. Chunky jumpers, minimal branding and a general cleaner cut to their clothes allows Potter to walk the fine line between looking effortlessly smart without looking like he cares about fashion at all. It’s easily translatable to real life for the kind of guy that wants to look sharp but doesn’t want to appear obsessive about it either.
There’s also something incredibly useful about a style that can take you fromAppointmentArmani to dinner out on a Sunday. Throw on a quarter zip, crisp trousers and a decent pair of trainers and you’re ready to face pretty much any situation modern life can throw at you. Offices that allow casual attire, school runs, parent’s evenings, grabbing lunch with your girlfriend.
You name it. It works. Heck, if your workplace is especially stiff it’s the perfect way to survive a casual Friday.
At the other end of the spectrum we have the traditional English approach to tailoring, championed by managers like Carlo Ancelotti. When I say these guys wear flawless suits, I mean it. There’s not a single trendy suit you’ll find on Ancelotti.
But that’s the point; everything he wears is so timeless that his suits will still look as stylish in twenty years’ time when we look back on them as they do today. Don’t get me wrong, I love a trending micro-twill or slightly baggy fit as much as the next guy, but there’s nothing he wears that you can’t grab from any Off-White-esq shop and replicate for cheaper. No, what we should take from the Italian is that if you stick to exemplary quality pieces in the classics you’ll never have to worry about your clothes dating.
Ancelotti probably has enough Kiton suits to open his own branch, but you get my point. Stick to the classics that work for your body type and you’ll never have to worry about updating your wardrobe as the trends change. I tried to do that once.
About a decade ago I fell into an awkward style phase where I bought about half a dozen skinny suits in crazy colours that looked ridiculous on me. They all looked terrible in photos (why do I keep doing this to myself?) and within a year I couldn’t bear to leave the house wearing any of them. If I had Ancelotti’s approach back then I could have saved myself a lot of time, money, and humiliation. im1979/Getty Images Sport/Getty Images Probably the most useful lessons I take from football managers is how to dress for your body type and age.
Most style guides will rail on about this, but trust me when I say you haven’t seen it done until you’ve watched Sam Allardyce or Roy Hodgson host themselves. Allardyce’s frame is vast but he doesn’t use clothes to bulk himself out any further. Likewise Hodgson has maintained a sartorial elegance into his seventies that many men half his age can’t get away with without looking like they work at Maison.
Let these guys teach you how it’s done. Trust. They can also teach us how clothes help shape our public perceptions.
When Eddie Howe first started climbing the managerial ranks he mostly wore tracksuits. As he’s become more established and film-ready he’s swapped the tracksuit tops for suits. It wasn’t just a case of wanting to look smarter.
It was a conscious effort to show everyone he was changing and developing as a manager. The same applies to us. Yes, we should dress differently for work, events, the gym etc.
It’s not being fake, it’s adapting your style to the situation you’ll find yourself in. Football managers also have a very handy guide for dressing through the driest autumn and winter months. Laugh if you want but thinking about what you’re going to wear to stand on the football pitch for nearly three hours from September to May is quite the struggle.
They have to look smart come rain or shine, mug yourself out or snowed in. The English managers have nailed layering in a way that provides warmth without being bulky. Thomas Tuchel used to wear a quilted gilet over a fitted sweatshirt with his trousers tapered all year during his time at Chelsea.
It looked ridiculously effective and has now become something I’ll wear any time I need to feel warm without sacrificing movement. Weekend shopping. doctors appointments. Fridays at the office that forget it’s Casual Friday.
The amount of times I’ve b.sockholmvested this combo is insane. The more I look at football managers, the more I realise they’re a perfect mix of personality and professionalism. They’re allowed to express who they are through their clothing in a way that players will never be able to.
You won’t see many players rocking uniquely British style cues because they’re busy sewing ‘Harry’, ‘Ronaldo’ or ‘Mbappe’ on the front of every item of clothing they own. But managers can and do dress like actual people. It’s something we could all learn from.
Dressing for work shouldn’t mean stripping away your personality until you’re some drip locked in an Excel meeting, but equally you shouldn’t turn up to your weekly accounting review like you’re leading Chelsea. It finally hit me how important this balance is when I was helping my brother- in-law revamp his wardrobe for his new role as a manager last year. He kept wanting to go super-safe with his clothing choices; lots of greys, blues and plain shirts because ‘I want to look professional’.
It took pointing out photos of about six Premier League managers before he understood that looking authoritative doesn’t mean you have to wear boring clothes. How Guardiola will enhance his own sense of authority just by wearing outfits others dare not dream of is what you should strive for. You should look like you when you’re at work.
Whether that’s intense HugoBoss professionalism or WeekendWithYourBoyfriend relaxed depends on your job, but it should still fit your personality. Are you a laugh-a-minute motivator or a chilled-out tactician? Maybe you’re the dad friend, or the buttoned-up boss?
Your clothing should help tell people that story about who you are the minute you enter the room.
Football managers have taught me more about dressing for work than anything else out there. So if you’re still struggling to nail your post-lockdown work attire I cannot recommend enough you bookmark this post and save it for next August.
You’ll be thankful when you can pull up photos of Klopp smashing his windbreaker over a hoodie as proof you can get away with wearing what you want. Trust me. A unique style that fits your industry, office culture and personal taste is how every man should approach their wardrobe.
Take inspiration from your favourite managers; keep what works and change what doesn’t. Suit copy Klopp? Brilliant, own it every day.
Feel more comfortable in a CRM than Carmina? Then channel your inner Ancelotti. Remember, evolution, not revolution.
As with most things on the touchline, there’s no wrong answer.
