GENNARO GATTUSO IS A FEELING. He's angry, proud, direct, and honest. He's a manager you hire when you have a deficit of values in the locker room. He's someone you trust to change the dynamics of the group more than the tactics they use on the pitch.

It's for this reason that Italy has turned to Gattuso. In no other situation would the fiery 47-year-old rank as a legitimate option for the national team. Even now, he wasn't the first option. Claudio Ranieri would be coaching the team if he really wanted the job.

But the Azurrri are in the exact state of paralysis that requires a jolt that only someone like Gattuso can provide. Or so the feeling goes. No one is really confident he can get Italy to qualify for the World Cup. But no one really knows who else would sign up for the job.

That in itself is a problem. None of the game's top managers would accept a role with such a fundamentally short-term outlook. The best coaches want a project, and this isn't it. The focus is on getting to the World Cup, and nothing else. The FIGC doesn't have enough time to revamp Italy's entire football system. It must get to the World Cup. It's a national emergency.

The black-and-white nature of the job makes it risky. It's the kind of role that can damage a reputation for those who have one to protect. Gattuso's career as a manager hasn't generated such an aura. He needs the job just as much as Italy needs his snarling attributes.

He has taken jobs in France, Spain, Greece, and Croatia under similar conditions. He arrives midseason — in this case, mid-qualification cycle — to kick asses and take corrective action. Given his qualities as a no-nonsense Calabrese with a sharp tongue and unflinching morals, Gattuso is medication in the cabinet for such desperate situations. It's why Napoli turned to him after firing Carlo Ancelotti and the reason Marseille hired him when their manager resigned weeks into the 2023-24 season.

The problem is that there is little evidence that Gattuso's firefighting skills actually put out fires. He left many of his nine previous gigs by mutual consent, which would make a good title for anyone interested in writing a book on his whirlwind 12-year coaching career. He has and will continue to create problems if he doesn't feel he has the backing he deserves. Gattuso famously agreed to coach Fiorentina in May 2021 only to back out of the agreement two weeks later. But he will take care of his people. When he left Milan's bench in 2019, he agreed not to take a penny in severance so long as his coaching staff were taken care of.

The 2019-20 Coppa Italia remains the only title he's ever won as a tactician. But that was more than just a simple domestic cup triumph. It came a month after his sister Francesca died from a rare illness and after he himself suffered from a scary eye condition. He's suffered for his family, and he's suffered for his players. If nothing else, he will do his best and demand the same from the group he's inheriting. He will uphold values and sideline those who don't respect his code of conduct.

In its current lackluster form, the national team needs that kind of discipline. The players have to once again realize that there are stakes — and beyond just the results. A whole generation has yet to experience a World Cup with Italy in it. The Azzurri have slowly lost their spot at the top of the Italian sports chain, falling behind emerging heroes in tennis, swimming, athletics, water polo, and even skiing. The national team isn't the strong unifying element that it was in 2006 or 1982. Italians can now take pride in other sports. Playing in a World Cup isn't as compulsory as it used to be. And it must be.

Gattuso fully understands the assignment, and while he continues to face questions over his coaching acumen, the conversation is suddenly less about the formation his teams will use and more about the spirit with which they will play. It's more about grinta than philosophy. Maybe the weekly responsibilities of club football, what with all of the training sessions and intricate styles of play and the overcoaching that's made the game a little too robotic, never really suited someone like Gattuso. Maybe international football is his arena. There he can actually slam doors and tell people to go to hell and actually get a response. Because he'll only ever have a few days at a time with his players. He won't run the risk of turning all curmudgeonly as he would during the grind of a club season.

His message will sting, and it will hit like rocks to the head, but it won't hit players every day, leaving them numb to the message over time. Here, it'll serve as a reminder every few months to wake up and serve your country well.