Manchester United uber-gaffer Sir Alex Ferguson once said on the matter of coaching badges: "I had my full coaching badge when I was 24. To me it is the most important thing. It's quite right that you should have your full badge to coach."

In Gianluca Vialli and Gab Marcotti's book "The Italian Job", the two Italians analyze the many differences between English and Italian football. One of the central differences which snakes its way through the book is the fact that the Italian players treat football as a professional endeavour whereas the English treat it as a game.

"The Italian Job" is laced with metaphors - the players are boxers, the English one tries his hardest but the Italian has more nous. In a training session English players would run into a brick wall without question, the Italian players would ask the manager to run into the brick wall first. The English are all heart and sweat, nippy terriers with no technique whilst the Italians are savvy to the dark arts, and will do anything to win.

If 2-0 down, the English will fight back, whereas the Italians will take it easy, accept the loss and save their energy for the next game. As the English puppies playfully run rings around their opposition, the Italians are all about economy of movement, like a sly cat which will flex its claws only for a few surgically-timed strikes.

On the whole, I think these comparisons - although gross generalisations - still ring true. The point which seems the most relevant is when Vialli and Marcotti talk about management. Vialli seems perplexed about management in England, and clearly thinks that Coverciano - the Italian football school - is something that the English should emulate.

Vialli bemoans the fact that experience and training are undervalued in the modern British game and that ex-professionals are somehow entrusted with high-flying clubs. Vialli asserts that the Italian system is superior, where coaching badges are a prerequisite and the idea of "learning" the game is embraced.