Roberto Mancini brings winning habit to City

London: The two forwards leaned nonchalantly against a wall in the entrance hall of Ibrox, wearing matching dark blue cashmere overcoats with the designer's label — Pal Zileri — left exposed on the left cuff.

This was the winter of 1992 and Roberto Mancini and Gianluca Vialli had taken no part in that night's goalless World Cup qualifying match between Scotland and Italy.

Approaching the end of their international careers, they exuded a languid cool as they waited to board the team coach.

Almost two decades later, Mancini is defined almost as much by his sense of style as by his achievements in football.

Appropriately enough, his version of the Italian bella figura is strongly rooted in the look of the English gentleman.

Presciently enough, he nominates blue "in all its shades" as his favourite colour, and now the pale blue of Manchester City will be added to the bright blue (and red) of Bologna, the Mediterranean blue of Sampdoria, the eggshell blue of Lazio, the royal blue of Leicester, the midnight blue (and black) of Internazionale and the azure of Italy's national team on his curriculum vitae.

Exposure during his playing career to many managers including Renzo Ulivieri, Juan Carlos Lorenzo, Vujadin Boskov, Sven-Goran Eriksson and, albeit for a mere five matches, Peter Taylor has certainly deepened his own understanding of the job.

When he took his first steps in management it was for four months as Eriksson's assistant at Lazio, a reunion with the man he had formed a bond with at Sampdoria.

That appointment ended with Eriksson's sacking in 2001, after which Mancini briefly returned to playing, joining Taylor's Leicester for a few weeks before accepting an offer to take charge of Fiorentina.

His record is impressive. He has won trophies with each of the clubs he has managed: the Coppa Italia with Fiorentina, Lazio and Inter, and a hat-trick of Serie A titles with the Milan club, the first manager of the Nerazzurri to achieve that feat.

Mancini joined Inter in 2004, becoming the 12th manager hired by Massimo Moratti, the club's president, in nine years. The following season, aided by the punishments handed out to Juventus and Milan as a result of the Calciopoli scandal, he was able to satisfy his employer's minimum requirement by leading Inter to the Serie A championship for the first time in 17 seasons.

Ambition

Even though he followed up with two more titles, he was unable to help the president achieve his ultimate ambition, which was to emulate his father by winning the European Cup, as Angelo Moratti had done twice in the 1960s.

In fact he could not even get close, and that failure persuaded Moratti to replace him with Jos Mourinho just after the third Serie A title had been secured. At Eastlands the initial requirement will be more basic.

Although Manchester City started the season with an agreement between owner and manager that sixth place would be an acceptable reward for the season, the apparent disintegration of the established top four has convinced the Abu Dhabi owners that an expensively assembled squad should be aiming for a Champions League slot.

According to Vialli, his old friend has been preparing himself while negotiating his payoff from Moratti.

"Roberto has been working hard over a year and a half to learn English and has been living in London for a few months to learn the language," he said. The nature of Mancini's task is unlikely to be lost in translation.