The demise of the tracksuit manager

The_Lizards_Jumpers

The_Lizards_Jumpers

Well-known member
Just a few years ago there were two choices of outfit for a manager on the touchline, either a tracksuit or full suit.

Nowadays the touchline is more like a nightclub queue with puffer jackets, cashmere jumpers, Thom Browne cardigans or pleather jackets (Hello Gareth Ainsworth) seemingly the order of the day.

Guardiola may have brought many good things to English football, but this is one step too far, especially when some managers seemingly act like a walking billboard for Jamie Redknapp's Sandbanks label.
 
You don’t see a manager wearing a suit with a manager’s coat any more either. Ferguson and his charcoal grey number underneath a padded Umbro bench coat, Wenger in his finest grey two-piece beneath a quilted sleeping bag.

I think it’s the age of the self and social media. Everyone’s a fashionista now. Look at the pundits on MOTD for example. The days of blazers and ties, your Jimmy Hills, your Alan Hansens, your Lynams, your Bob Wilsons, were replaced by your Wrights, your Shearers, your Townsends, all in a range of open-necked pastel coloured shirts and dark grey trousers. With belts.

Now there’s hats, roll necks, trendy beards and pocket squares. Grooming habits have completely changed things as well. I mean, Rooney grew a beard, wore a black roll neck and landed a broadsheet column discussing tactics. That shows where things have gone.

Everyone’s a stylist, a barber, a clothes horse. Everyone’s aware of their image these days. Blokes will be sh*t scared of showing up on the touchline in a club tracksuit.

Only Bielsa remains.
 
The_Lizards_Jumpers said:
Just a few years ago there were two choices of outfit for a manager on the touchline, either a tracksuit or full suit.

Nowadays the touchline is more like a nightclub queue with puffer jackets, cashmere jumpers, Thom Browne cardigans or pleather jackets (Hello Gareth Ainsworth) seemingly the order of the day.

Guardiola may have brought many good things to English football, but this is one step too far, especially when some managers seemingly act like a walking billboard for Jamie Redknapp's Sandbanks label.
Click to expand...

Totally agree, some of them look like they've stepped straight off a golf course too. (Gary Monk, fresh from a clandestine meeting with an agent in the 19th hole anyone?).

Mind you, I like it, people seem to be wearing clothes they more naturally would in the real world. Always struck me watching footy years ago that most managers would be wearing clothes that the majority of the crowd watching wouldn't be wearing or that they themselves probably wouldn't wear most of the time. It was as if subconsciously they were all conforming with the lazy footy manager stereotype, you're either suit or tracksuit.

Yet sitting in a suit would be uncomfortable outdoors watching footy, and the tracksuit gear too seems a little odd, you're watching a match not exercising. More now are in casual clobber that they'd probably wear away from the ground. They are being more themselves and acting like individuals.

Jesus, I've wrote a hell of a lot of cobblers there for something I care so little about! 🤣
 
viv_andersons_nana said:
You don’t see a manager wearing a suit with a manager’s coat any more either. Ferguson and his charcoal grey number underneath a padded Umbro bench coat, Wenger in his finest grey two-piece beneath a quilted sleeping bag.
Click to expand...
Good point, who can forget Wenger's ankle warming puffer jacket on top of his club blazer - a true iconic moment in fashion.
 
viv_andersons_nana said:
There’s a YouTube compilation of all the times Wenger couldn’t fasten the zip on those coats.

Don’t forget Egil Olsen’s wellies as well. Can you imagine a manager doing that now? No chance.
Click to expand...

Or Steve Evans in his holiday gear....

www.theguardian.com

Steve Evans: life’s a beach for Rotherham United manager at Leeds

Rotherham manager Steve Evans kept to his word and arrived to his side’s closing Championship game at Leeds in a shorts, T-shirt, flip-flops and a sombrero
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
The_Lizards_Jumpers said:
Or Steve Evans in his holiday gear....

www.theguardian.com

Steve Evans: life’s a beach for Rotherham United manager at Leeds

Rotherham manager Steve Evans kept to his word and arrived to his side’s closing Championship game at Leeds in a shorts, T-shirt, flip-flops and a sombrero
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
Click to expand...
One thing about Steve Evans; he wears mascara. Which is quite mad when you think of the ‘style’ of manager he is. He wouldn’t really strike you as a highlights and mascara sort of bloke but there you go. I’m sure the refs take the p*ss out of the big fat angry bloke effin and jeffin in his guyliner.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard of another manager wearing mascara.
 
I'm literally (and I literally mean literally here) the last person to comment on fashion. But, as I've seen it, it tends to be league-specific. While in this country it has been track suit or full suit as described in the OP, in Germany the typical coach's outfit in recent years has been jeans and a hoodie or T-shirt depending on the weather. Perhaps a club anorak for older coaches. Remember Nagelsmann turning up in the 'Champions' League in quite a silly suit a couple of years ago because a full suit is the uniform for that competition.
 
Capybara said:
I'm literally (and I literally mean literally here) the last person to comment on fashion. But, as I've seen it, it tends to be league-specific. While in this country it has been track suit or full suit as described in the OP, in Germany the typical coach's outfit in recent years has been jeans and a hoodie or T-shirt depending on the weather. Perhaps a club anorak for older coaches. Remember Nagelsmann turning up in the 'Champions' League in quite a silly suit a couple of years ago because a full suit is the uniform for that competition.
Click to expand...
I liked when Phil Neville looked at the work Southgate did over several years as England manager; the planning, thinking, strategising, coaching and preparation, and decided that all he needed to do to enjoy the same amount of success and popularity was wear the same waistcoat as Gareth. It tells you a lot about him as a manager IMO.
 
I miss the days of coaches sat on the bench wearing team shorts and socks, fully pulled up, as expertly modelled by Colin Cooper
 

Attachments

  • football-preston-north-end-v-middlesbrough-coca-cola-football-league-championship-deepdale-091...jpg
    football-preston-north-end-v-middlesbrough-coca-cola-football-league-championship-deepdale-091...jpg
    112.5 KB · Views: 16
This isn't confined to football. Work attire has changed massively over the last few years. Working From Home has accelerated it even further. Our office used to be suit and tie as standard but as a minimum it was proper shoes, trousers and a shirt. Then people started dropping the tie completely, the suit went for chinos and shirt and then once we were WFH it became a free for all. If I go in the office now it's jeans, trainers and a hoody. That would have been unthinkable in our place a few years ago. It's like everyone has realised that what you wear has no bearing on how you do your job.

For football managers I think the difference between the suit/tracksuit managers was always how hands on they were as a coach. some of them wanted to get involved in the warm-up so were dressed in the training gear. Others wanted to appear to be above the players so the suit provided some authority.

I am surprised the clubs don't insist on the managers wearing club gear though. They would basically be a walking advert if they are wearing the stuff they are selling in the club shop. I'm sure that's what used to happen with those big manager coats. I know they definitely do in the NFL. They're all decked out in team branded gear on the touchlines.
 
Capybara said:
I'm literally (and I literally mean literally here) the last person to comment on fashion. But, as I've seen it, it tends to be league-specific. While in this country it has been track suit or full suit as described in the OP, in Germany the typical coach's outfit in recent years has been jeans and a hoodie or T-shirt depending on the weather. Perhaps a club anorak for older coaches. Remember Nagelsmann turning up in the 'Champions' League in quite a silly suit a couple of years ago because a full suit is the uniform for that competition.
Click to expand...
Same in Spain - smart casual wear on the touchline
 
Bored, so I thought I'd go through the league 24 on their last match.

Birmingham - Eustace in a tracksuit
Blackburn - Tomasson in a tracksuit and puffy coat
Blackpool - Appleton in a tracksuit and puffy coat
Bristol City - Pearson in a tracksuit and puffy coat
Burnley - Kompany in a tracksuit
Cardiff - Hudson in a tracksuit
Coventry - Robins in a tracksuit
Huddersfield - Fotheringham in a tracksuit
Hull - Rosenior in a fleece and trousers with a big jacket
Luton - Jones in a tracksuit
Middlesbrough - Carrick in trousers, jumper and big coat
Millwall - Rowett in a tracksuit
Norwich - Smith in trousers, shirt/jumper and big coat
Preston - Lowe in a tracksuit
QPR - Beale in a tracksuit
Reading - Ince in a  tracksuit
Rotherham - Taylor in tracksuit bottoms and hoodie
Sheffield United - Heckingbottom in a  tracksuit
Stoke - Neill in a  tracksuit
Sunderland - Mowbray in trousers and fleece
Swansea - Martin in coat and trousers
West Brom - Corberan in a  tracksuit
Watford - Bilic in trousers
Wigan - Richardson in a tracksuit

So by my reckoning, that's 18 of the 24 managers in at least tracksuits bottoms in their last match, some of them may have been wearing different tops under their coats, rather than going full shell suit, but still.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top