“Look smart, play smart”, as the saying goes. Perhaps it is about time we coined the phrase, “Look smart, manage smart” — and the meaning of “smart” is very much in the eye of the beholder.
In his first full season in charge — and despite two separate points deductions — Sean Dyche has steered Everton clear of relegation danger in the Premier League.
And what does Dyche credit as his secret weapon? Ditching wearing a traditional suit and tie for a club tracksuit, of course.
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We’re not here to debate whether football managers donning classy business suits or comfortable matching sets of sportswear is superior. Instead, this feels like the perfect time to dive into what the Premier League’s movers and shakers are wearing on the touchline.
Want to imitate the Dyche look? (He’s cool enough to appear in music videos, remember.) The Athletic’s writers have got you covered.
On matchdays, Arteta tends to dress in monotone — shades of black and grey. He frequently sports black shoes, grey trousers and one from a variety of black jackets. Black conveys seriousness and credibility — perfect for a manager striving to achieve his first Premier League title.
“At a high-performance level, you have to be consistent, things are demanding, you want to be detailed and precise,” Arteta told The Telegraph last year. “But at the same time, you need to leave some room for creativity.”
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In those nervous moments of stoppage time, he occasionally glances down at a Rolex Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master II. The watch dates from 2007 — the year Arteta was voted Everton’s player of the year after leading them to European football.
Perhaps Arteta should consider introducing some camouflage to his match attire: it might enable him to evade referees when escaping out of his technical area.
Mikel Arteta, a high-performance dresser (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
James McNicholas
Suave, sophisticated and all about the football. Emery’s fashion is largely dictated by the environment and the conditions he goes to battle in. At Turf Moor, for example, he broke out the rarely worn club tracksuit. When facing the managers he considers to be the best in the world, he wears sharp polished shoes and a long coat.
After an international break or in the summer, he has olive skin and a fresh new haircut. In the winter, he has a claret scarf, Roberto Mancini-like, tucked into a black puffer jacket and almost always accompanied by slim-fit trousers and a V-neck jumper underneath.
Nothing over the top, but adaptable. Best of all, it reflects him: highly effective in all conditions.
Unai Emery keeps it classy (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Jacob Tanswell
Andoni Iraola, Bournemouth
Iraola has delivered a penchant for those ‘pundit trainers’ — you know, the black shoes with the white rim around them. It forms a part of his smart but casual look, like a trendy university teacher who wears a blazer when walking between classrooms. He wears tracksuits at press conferences but invariably a neat black jumper with a button-up shirt underneath, with the collars tucked over.
He’s also adaptable, like his Spanish countryman Emery — and at Villa Park, Iraola broke out a neat blue jacket, adding a dash of pizzazz to the usual black trousers and pundit trainers. Not quite Scott Parker, but Iraola is learning.
Andoni Iraola making full use of his ‘pundit trainers’ (Matt McNulty/Getty Images)
Jacob Tanswell
Thomas Frank, Brentford
When Frank stepped up from his role as Dean Smith’s assistant to become Brentford’s head coach in October 2018, he took his promotion seriously.
Frank prowled around on the touchline in suits, crossing his arms when he was frustrated and looking like a teacher — which he used to be back in Denmark.
He quickly ditched the suits for something more comfortable and in the 2021 Championship play-off final, one of the biggest moments in Brentford’s history, he rocked up in a simple long-sleeved green T-shirt and dark trousers.
Nowadays, he jumps between wearing club-branded coats in chilly weather or plain black hoodies — comfort over style. On special occasions, The Athletic has spotted him in a blue-and-white pair of Nike Air Max.
Thomas Frank taking his Nike Air Force One trainers for an outing (Steve Bardens/Getty Images)
Jay Harris
Roberto De Zerbi, Brighton & Hove Albion
De Zerbi’s dress code has been more consistent than his team this season. Rain or shine, warm or cold, Brighton’s head coach brings Italian suave to the touchline with his matchday outfit.
It can be a hooded jacket, a round-neck jumper with the sleeves rolled up, or a T-shirt, depending on the vagaries of the English weather, but the colour scheme is always the same — black with tight-fitting black slacks and white trainers.
Roberto De Zerbi proving consistency is key (Matt McNulty/Getty Images)
Andy Naylor
Vincent Kompany, Burnley
Kompany claims he pays no thought to his touchline attire in the build-up to games, although it is difficult to truly believe him as he marches to the dugout looking more stylish than most.
First impressions count, so when his side faced Huddersfield Town in his first game in charge back in July 2022, he donned a white shirt, black blazer — and, surprisingly, no cap.
Kompany’s cap has become the new iconic trend in Burnley. There is genuine shock when he appears without it on the touchline or when conducting media duties. The cap is an extension of him.
The classic Kompany look usually involves a variation of a big black coat and his unmissable white shoes. However, in the warmer months, underneath, the T-shirt and blazer combination returns — and this time with a cap on his head. Occasionally, the club’s training gear may be chosen. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but the Burnley manager pulls it off.
Vincent Kompany, pictured wearing his signature Burnley cap (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Andy Jones
Mauricio Pochettino, Chelsea
No one can accuse Mauricio Pochettino of not trying to find the right outfit to bring about better results at Chelsea.
As far as head coaches and looking smart go, Jose Mourinho set the benchmark for all to follow in his two spells between 2004 and 2007, and 2013 and 2015. It is a bit like his silverware collection while at Stamford Bridge.
Pochettino has gone for the smart, suited look on occasion, although, like his mood after another poor result, the colours are always very dark. There has even been the odd tie attached.
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Then, there is the training kit. Perhaps Pochettino dons it so regularly to boost sales in the club shop. Chelsea do have to find all the ways possible to meet profit and sustainability rules, after all.
He appears to quite like a football drill top, which has white down the arms — a rare bit of brightness in his Chelsea life.
Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t stray far from official Chelsea gear (George Wood/Getty Images)
Simon Johnson
Last year, Crystal Palace appointed Kenny Annan-Jonathan as the first creative director for a Premier League club, but Oliver Glasner probably doesn’t need any fashion tips.
Glasner’s matchday attire is simple and understated. A trademark Canada Goose jacket with a black jumper and black jeans, coupled with a pair of white Nike Air Max Plus (better known as Air Max TNs).
It contrasts markedly with the garish orange-and-black Macron kit that is usually donned at the training ground.
The 49-year-old has attracted attention for his change in playing style at Palace, but his fashion style is also a complete departure from previous manager Roy Hodgson and the iconic shorts worn by former assistant Ray Lewington, no matter the weather.
Canada Goose X Nike TNs
Oliver Glasner has the ends in Croydon 🦅 pic.twitter.com/5ptAjrJfgF
— KITLAUNCH (@kit_launch) February 25, 2024
Matt Woosnam
Sean Dyche, Everton
Dyche has said his mother “isn’t too happy about it”, but the emperor has new clothes and Everton are winning points.
Dyche has always managed in a suit — nothing spectacular, no subterranean polo necks, no avant-garde lapels — but Everton’s form was nose-diving. They were winless in 13 league matches, plummeting back towards the relegation zone, and Dyche’s man-management seemed to be losing its touch.
Reaching deep into his box of motivational tricks (or by listening to Michael Jackson), he began, suitably, with the man in the mirror, switching to a tracksuit for Everton’s must-win showdown with Nottingham Forest on April 21.
Sean Dyche in his game-changing tracksuit (Lewis Storey/Getty Images)
“I always thought it was correct to wear a shirt and tie, but I just thought I’d play my part in what I was looking for from my players and staff,” he said post-match.
Since then? Four games, no defeats, and Everton’s first derby win at Goodison Park since 2010. It has been the best week for shell suits since the 1980s.
Will he continue? “I have to,” he said last week, with the air of an ageing steel magnate on dress-down Friday. “I have no choice.”
Jacob Whitehead
Marco Silva, Fulham
Fashion seems to be important these days at Fulham. It is ‘on brand’ to look upmarket and stylish.
The club have leant into that affluent stereotype: just look at the sales of cheese boards in the club shop (purchased by fans for away days with more than a hint of irony, obviously). They have also established a partnership with male fashion brand Charles Tyrwhitt, which has a line called the ‘Fulham Look’. Marco Silva is not one of the models for that collection, but managers do need to look the part in south-west London.
His predecessor, Scott Parker, was never one to shy away from eye-catching knitwear. Silva is more low-key. He is a man of darker tones and a sharp and simple look, suggesting a seriousness that reflects his character.
He mainly wears black jumpers, sometimes opting for a turtleneck or a grey option, and often a big black coat in the rain and cold. Smart black shoes go with that, but he can and does switch to trainers and training gear. A smart or stylish watch is a must, though.
Marco Silva has the (west) London look (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Peter Rutzler
Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool
For Klopp’s farewell season at Liverpool, it’s been the trusted casual tracksuit attire we’ve become accustomed to seeing over his nine years in the Premier League.
At the start of the season, for the opener away at Chelsea, it was just a black Liverpool T-shirt with club tracksuit bottoms, a baseball cap and white Adidas trainers, the brand with which he became a brand ambassador in 2020.
As the weather turned, Klopp paired the above combination with a red-and-grey hoodie and had either a tracksuit top or a long raincoat over the top for the winter months. He’s sometimes added a snood for the really chilly games.
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He has kept the club Nike baseball cap on all season — with his choice of colour the main fashion change-up.
In an interview with the Guardian in 2020, Klopp explained why he’s always kept it casual. He said: “I was a player and the next day I was the manager (of Mainz).
“In my locker room was the tracksuit of the guy who had the job two days before. It didn’t even fit me. I was just focused on the game. I never thought about how I looked. I know it’s not too cool because we are working in public, but then when I came to Borussia Dortmund, I thought: ‘Maybe I have to change’. I went for a while wearing jeans and a shirt but I just didn’t feel comfortable.”
Jurgen Klopp is another of the Premier League’s regular cap-wearers (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Tom Burrows
Who remembers the Next catalogue? Every matchday, it looks like Rob Edwards has walked right out of it.
Edwards has the three-quarter zip jumper look locked down. His Luton team are in the relegation zone with two games to go, but he is top of the league when it comes to best-dressed managers.
Are you even a football manager if, when you open your wardrobe, you aren’t suddenly drowning in Sandbanks coats? Edwards certainly enjoys repping the brand, which has Jamie Redknapp as its ambassador, and he does so with style.
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Edwards’ recent look for Luton’s away trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers was his best of the season. He wore something similar on a scouting trip to Molineux a few days earlier but rounded off the fit with a pair of clear-frame glasses. When it comes to manager fashion, he is clear.
Rob Edwards, the epitome of pure catalogue cool (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Caoimhe O’Neill
Pep Guardiola, Manchester City
At the Etihad Stadium, high-end fashion and high-end football collide.
Guardiola has long been one of the most fashionable managers out there and his sensibilities have matured over the years to a point of pristine quiet luxury.
Gone are the ice-white trainers of old, replaced by chunky black derby shoes. Gone, too, is the bulky grey coat-cardigan hybrid, made by Italian brand Herno, that became his calling card a few seasons ago — although Guardiola is still partial to the odd piece of cosy, statement knitwear.
Once keen on Stone Island — although he sometimes removed the brand’s signature arm tag — the Manchester City manager is now more likely to be seen sporting CP Company, which is handy given the Italian luxury brand is set to become his club’s official Champions League clothing partner next season, replacing Dsquared2.
Pep Guardiola: keeping it cosy (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Dan Barnes
Every Manchester United manager needs a big coat for when it rains at Old Trafford. This season has seen Ten Hag wearing a raincoat from Norwegian brand UBR. He appears to be a fan of UBR’s black Storm jacket, which retails at around €800 (£690; $860).
On matchdays when it isn’t raining, the Dutchman is fond of a black blazer from Spanish clothing company Adolfo Dominguez, pricing at around €300.
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Recent weeks have seen him opt for a Paul Smith suit and cardigan combination — the English designer has been a club partner since 2008.
Despite these big names, you would be unlikely to say Ten Hag is a fan of luxury and designer clothing. The more sartorially minded might have spotted his suits had an off-the-rack look and seemed boxy around his lean shoulders. Ten Hag is most at home in a tracksuit but can dress up when the occasion calls for it.
Erik ten Hag is always prepared for the elements (Matt McNulty/Getty Images)
Carl Anka
The most important factor in determining Howe’s pre-match attire? Well, that would be whatever Jason ‘Mad Dog’ Tindall, his Rottweiler-esque assistant coach, is wearing.
The Premier League has introduced a technical-area rule in an attempt to break up the perpetual Howe-Tindall pitchside axis, but to little avail.
They remain a tenacious touchline act, apparently attached at the hip and yet wearing suitably discernible outfits. If Tindall has gone for the black with green logo, then Howe will inevitably select the black with yellow logo. If their colour theme is consistent, one will opt for a hoodie and the other for a zippy top. Why they always dress differently, nobody seems to know.
And by outfits, we mean tracksuits, hoodies and training T-shirts. There is never a suit in sight unless there is respect to be paid to a deceased monarch pre-match, in which case it is hastily whipped off in the tunnel before kick-off anyway and the slack pants are restored. Comfort is essential when watching this Newcastle side, after all.
Eddie Howe and his assistant Jason Tindall (left), who must surely swap notes to avoid a fashion clash (Matt McNulty/Getty Images)
Chris Waugh
Nuno Espirito Santo, Nottingham Forest
Since his unveiling at the City Ground, Nuno has been unwaveringly consistent in his attire.
Blue Adidas tracksuit bottoms, blue Adidas training top or hoodie and, if it is cold, a blue Adidas puffer jacket. Nuno has, on occasion, gone crazy and gone for white Adidas trainers, but normally (you’ve guessed it) they are also blue.
As a head coach, Nuno is fiercely practical. He does not want to waste time with the peripheral duties of his job. He only wants to work with his players on the training ground. Anything else is a distraction. You suspect his choice of clothes represents function over form.
For Nuno Espirito Santo, blue is the colour (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Paul Taylor
During his first spell in charge at Bramall Lane, Wilder’s sartorial look was the very antithesis of his team. Where United played an innovative system featuring overlapping centre-backs that left the opposition unable to predict just where the next attack would be coming from, he stuck doggedly to sporting a gilet. Come rain, hail or shine, the ubiquitous garment was there.
So, when his second coming in the United dugout last December saw the 56-year-old sport a rather smart winter coat, suit pants and shoes so shiny the suspicion was he had been up all night polishing them, it didn’t quite feel right.
Thankfully, in time, the gilet returned, along with an array of club-branded sportswear to restore a degree of reassuring familiarity.
Chris Wilder’s formal look is a thing of the past (David Rogers/Getty Images)
Richard Sutcliffe
Postecoglou began his time in north London by wearing a casual polo shirt. However, as summer gave way to autumn, he started to wear warmer clothes and settled on a suit and tie combination. Initially, this felt a little unnatural, but everyone has gradually grown used to it.
Postecoglou occasionally pairs the suit with trainers or the footwear known universally as ‘pundit shoes’, but generally, he wears smart black ones and has switched between a smarter coat and an official club sporty number.
The overall impression is of a man giving the minimum of fuss. It’s just who we are, mate.
Ange Postecoglou always has his top button done up (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Charlie Eccleshare
David Moyes, West Ham United
Since returning to the helm in December 2019, Moyes has kept his choice of clothing on matchdays simple and traditional.
He often wears a dark grey West Ham-branded Umbro tracksuit, with Umbro trainers.
Sometimes, the occasion calls for a plain, dark jumper, but also, sometimes Moyes will wear a suit, pairing a powder blue shirt with a claret tie to leave few doubts over the club he’s managing.
There are a few quirks when it comes to the clothing chosen by one of the Premier League’s most experienced managers.
David Moyes puts comfort first (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Roshane Thomas
Gary O’Neil, Wolverhampton Wanderers
Let’s be honest, there was not much about Wolves last season that was interesting, but Julen Lopetegui’s fashion choices certainly added a bit of intrigue.
Of the 26 matches he spent on the touchline as Wolves boss — he was banished to the stands for his final game in charge at Arsenal — the Spaniard managed an exact split, 13 games each, between a tracksuit and stylish chinos-sweater combo.
Yet the success rate in chinos (seven wins, three draws and three defeats) was so much better than in his tracksuit (three wins, two draws and eight defeats). It is remarkable he did not have a ceremonial burning of the sportswear.
In comparison, his successor, O’Neil, has been boringly predictable in his black hoodie, black trousers, black trainers and occasional black anorak.
But then, the football this season has been watchable, so swings and roundabouts…
Gary O’Neil is all thrills on the pitch, no frills on the touchline (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
Steve Madeley
(Top photos: left to right, Ange Postecoglou, Jurgen Klopp and Rob Edwards; Getty Images)
