Many of you maybe wondering where does football fit in with fashion? Well, football has been a significant influence on UK’s mens fashion and style for decades; from the players to the fans. After all footballers are to men, what supermodels are to us women, style icons, ores and spectacles who we are ever striving to emulate.

George Best became football's first superstar and its first fashion icon in the sixties, sporting a 'Beatles-inspired haircut, slim fitting sharp suits, and Chelsea boots, with a style that reflected and defined the times' GQ Magazine. Then the naughties with David Beckhams sense of style and experimentations with fashion proving to be as much as an inspiration to men around the world as his footballing ability. With the eighties came the emergence of the italian inspired ways of designer labels and expensive offhand sportswear, amongst the fans on the terraces.

With the notion that George Best’s style reflected and defined the times maybe this is applicable to the latest football inspired trend that has recently hit the streets of Manchester. The newly appointed Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has been receiving acclaim for wearing the club’s 1950s-style blue-and-white striped scarf. As with Best and Beckham, Mancini is seen to be a fashion icon around the globe, so fans and press alike speculated that scarf was a designer version produced from the finest cashmere but that could hardly be further from the truth. "Now every fan in Manchester wants one just like it."

What with adult football shirts retailing at around £40-£45 it is easy to see why in a recession fans have adopted retro scarfs as a mark of allegiance to their club and also as the latest football fashion statement. What began as a freebie is now flying out of the City club shop quicker than they can replenish stocks, and with red and white version been spotted around the other side of the city, who said inflation was low at the moment? Or perhaps this is a well executed form of product placemet.

Here are some other Managers who have influenced the world of fashion from the terraces.

• The ‘Special One’ Jose Mourinho brought his character and impeccable sense of style to Chelsea, along with that infamous grey Armani overcoat, which sent males all across the country flocking to high street stores to find replica versions of the coat that was eventually auctioned at £22,000 for charity.

• Sven-Goran Eriksson brought a touch of class to the England camp, when he swapped the squads training
ground tracksuits for sharp,sleek tailored suits. And women of England have thanked him ever since!

• Steve McClaren a memorable manager for all of the wrong reasons, perhaps more so for the iconic pitch side umbrella incident. After that evening a country wide, closed lipped decision was made that no man, even in the pouring rain, should be seen holding an umbrella at a sporting event, it is just so un-masculine.

• Over to Barcelona, where the European Champions boss, former model Pep Gaurdiola proved he could live up to his status as the new Mourinho by sporting some very fetching ensembles. The most successful proving to be the ‘el classico’ look of fitted cardigan underneath a sharp tailored designer suit.

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