When news of Luciano Spalletti’s sacking was confirmed last week, Gabriele Gravina was adamant that the FIGC (the Italian FA) would not be rushed into choosing a replacement.

“We are going to take all the time in the world before naming our man,” the head of Italian football’s governing body said.

It was a curious choice of words.

The FIGC had already approached Claudio Ranieri to take over in an interim capacity for the remainder of the World Cup qualifiers and had been turned down by the 73-year-old.

Secondly, in the previous five days the FIGC had displayed all the poise of commuters running for a train at Milano Centrale or Roma Termini before their platform had been announced.

The FIGC moved in the general direction of a target, vague though it was. Would Roberto Mancini be welcomed back after admitting his decision to leave the Azzurri to take over the Saudi Arabia national team was a glaring – if handsomely remunerated – mistake?

Could Stefano Pioli be tempted to take over the role after Spalletti’s unceremonious defenestration? 

Some even suggested Jose Mourinho was the man for the job. After all, if Italy was to appoint the first foreign manager in their history, why not the Special One himself?

And what of the 2006 World Cup winners? The general consensus is that this group of players are not living up to the illustrious standards set by their predecessors, so maybe Italy simply needed to delve into the history books to remind the current generations what they are representing?

It soon became apparent that was the FIGC’s preferred road, with Gennaro Gattuso appointed on a one-year deal on Sunday.

To be generous to the Italian FA, they have taken a courageous decision and thought outside the box.

On the flipside, it is hard to dispel the feeling they have opted for the vibes man. Spalletti clearly could not replicate the alchemy he had produced at Napoli two years ago and once Ranieri turned down the job, there was a dearth of contenders available.

In that respect, Gravina’s statement on Sunday was telling.

 “Gattuso is a symbol of Italian football, the shirt is like his second skin,” he said. “His motivations, professionalism, and experience will be fundamental in taking on the next challenges of the national team.

“He knows the importance of our objectives, and I thank him for his readiness and dedication in accepting this challenge. He shares the FIGC’s project of the development of our football, in which the Azzurri shirt is a central part.”

Perhaps unjustly, throughout his playing career, Gattuso was always renowned for his brawn and energy more than a laser-focus vision.

If Andrea Pirlo was the suave, wine-sipping maestro, Gattuso was the man who ran himself into the ground to allow his team-mates to express themselves. It is a reputation that, to an extent, has followed him into managerial life.

Over a 12-year coaching career, with the exception of AC Milan and Napoli, he has never lasted longer than a season in a job (although in 2016 he did return to Pisa a month after leaving).

So, the one-year deal tabled by the FICG is par for the course for the 47-year-old, who left Hajduk Split earlier this month after 12 months in charge.

Capped 73 times by Italy, Gattuso’s only silverware as a manager was the Coppa Italia he won with Napoli in 2020.

It is hardly the kind of CV that will have Italy’s rivals quaking in their boots.

Third in Group I nine points adrift of Norway, with two games in hand, the Azzurri face an uphill battle to qualify automatically for next year’s World Cup.

Almost certainly, their path to punch a ticket for the USA will go through the play-offs, where they fell in 2018 and 2022.

While Gravina suggested Italy had all the time in the world ahead of their next qualifier, the reality is Gattuso has less than three months until his debut against Estonia on September 5.

It shapes up to be a busy summer for the former AC Milan manager, who will have to evaluate the options at his disposal.

Throughout his career, Gattuso has always tied his colour firmly to the mast of a four-man defence, a legacy of Carlo Ancelotti’s all-conquering Milan team he was a pillar of.

But in his solitary season with Hajduk Split, he switched from his preferred 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1 and eventually to a 3-4-2-1.

Under Spalletti, Italy played with a three-man defence following the Euro 2024 fiasco last summer and Gattuso may be inclined to follow suit, given it is the preferred method of most Serie A clubs.

The major problem for the Calabrian is the relative dearth of talent at his disposal. The glory days of 2006 are long gone and even the memories of Euro 2020 are fading rapidly.

Bar goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and midfielders Nicolo Barella and Sandro Tonali, Italy do not have world-class players in their ranks.

Moise Kean and Mateo Retegui have been prolific in Serie A, but remain a level below the true elite strikers in Europe. 

Federico Chiesa has never lived up to the glimpses of talent he showed at Euro 2020 and never fully recovered from his ACL injury, while Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci have retired.

Still only 32, Marco Verratti has been playing in Qatar for the past two years, while Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi ply their trade in Canada.

In the likes of Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Matteo Politano, Manuel Locatelli and Raoul Bellanova, Gattuso will be reunited with players he previously managed, which should make the post-Spalletti transition as smooth as possible.

Further afield, youngsters Francesco Pio Esposito and Cesare Casadei deserve a chance sooner rather than later.

So what kind of Italy will Gattuso’s be? To paraphrase one of his most famous lines from his time at OFI Crete, “sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe s**t.”