US Edition 
Gennaro Gattuso – Milan’s ‘little dog’ who is more bark than bite
Only a brave or foolish man would say it to Joe Jordan’s face today, but the man they still call 'Jaws' has much more in common with Gennaro Gattuso, ‘Ringhio’ (the Growl), than a nickname better suited to a Mexican wrestler than a football player.
Anyone who saw the Milan midfielder lose first his head then his dignity as Tottenham Hotspur deservedly won in San Siro last night, while Jordan retained his composure and his feet after Gattuso landed a slap then a headbutt on the Scot may contest this. But as footballers they are from similar stock.
And both men's finest hours on a football pitch are now consigned to the past.
Uncompromising, full-blooded and with a heavy serve of devilment, Gattuso is a throwback to a time when footballers were combatants rather than brand names, a time in which Jordan and his kind ruled the roost.
Gattuso over stepped the mark with the clumsy stride of a drunk adolescent giant last night. And deserves all that Uefa throw at him, and probably more. But in one sense he kept the tie alive for the Italians after a rampant Tottenham had threatened in the first half to render the return leg in London a mere formality.
His absence from the White Hart Lane match due to a booking in the first leg is a loss to Milan and a gain for Spurs.
Gattuso’s snearing, snarling, petty snapping at heels, legs and throats brought the San Siro crowd in to the game after Harry Redknapp’s side had silenced them with the efficiency and effervescence of their play.
The rottweiler of the Italians’ midfield is a pantomime villain to opponents and neutrals alike, but fans of Milan, Italy and Rangers, where he cut his barbed teeth, hold him dear.
And like it or loath it, the fact is he has two Champions League medals and a World Cup title to his name. He can be demonised and censured but not ignored. He is a water carrier supreme, a servant to more able footballers in the sides in which he has played. The anti-superstar with a huge profile. Even his beard harks back to another age of the game.
Part of Gattuso’s legend comes from his rags to riches story, born as he was in humble surroundings in Calabria, in the dirt poor south of Italy. You have to fight your way out of such beginnings. Something Gattuso proved adept at.
After signing with Perugia, he soon sort fame and fortune abroad. At 19 he joined Glasgow Rangers, where his willingness in the tackle was appreciated and encouraged. After a brief stay he returned to Italy with his soon to be wife, a Scot of Italian origin, to join newly promoted Salernitana. Who were promptly relegated.
But Gattuso was destined for greater things. He joined Milan in 1999 and has been gainfully employed there as hatchet man to work alongside genuine talents, most notably Andre Pirlo and Kaka, whom he once described a so perfect that he sometimes touched him in training to check if the Brazilian was real.
Controversy was never far from a man who not so much courted conflict as stalked it remorselessly. Most notably, he was involved in ugly scenes with Schalke 04 midfielder Christian Poulsen, whom he ran after like an angry infant to mock and berate following a 3-2 Champions League victory.
The Dane’s crime? Some roughhouse challenges on Kaka, that Gattuso would have been proud of himself, in the game. His wild-eyed deranged jumping up and down that night spoke of an uneven mind, a child in a bulldog’s body. More bark than bite.
Even a spat with now team-mate Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2003 when the Swede was with Ajax was more bluster than violence. A backhanded slap across his opponent’s face followed by the customary pushing and shoving.
And last night when Gattuso, his temper flared by the sound beating his team had taken and his impotence in completing a recovery, chose a 59-year-old man to take his frustrations out on, it was all gesture and misplaced bravado.
His anger and intent was more vivid when team-mates were between him and his adversary. The shirtless ‘let me at ‘em’ posturing as unedifying as the weak headbutt that didn’t even make Jordan flinch.
The most memorable image of Gattuso is of his celebrations following Italy's 2006 World Cup win, when he stripped down to his pants to run around the pitch until an official told him to cover his modesty. It was a mixture of the primal and the comic that has characterised his career. A successful one, undoubtedly, but one that on last night's evidence is rapidly nearing its end.