YOU pick it up from a young age, influenced as much by your upbringing as your surroundings.

The association starts off small but steadily becomes an intimate part of your life, to the point at which you readily engage in heated debates with complete strangers.

And, whether you like it or not, it’ll stay with you forever. For richer for poorer, for better for worse.

Essentially, therefore, political persuasion and footballing allegiance share plenty in common.

Some will argue, with credible foundation, that a political agenda is a choice freely made by the individual, while a football club can be thrust upon you by geography, ancestry or an urge to glory hunt.

A proportion of those people, no doubt, are among the number questioning the appointment of Paolo Di Canio as Swindon Town’s new manager.

But does Di Canio’s arrival really herald a fascist era at the County Ground? And do those who accuse the new manager of overt racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and homophobia really understand his ideology? His own, personal ideology.

Let’s get this straight – I cannot claim even meekly to know how the Di Canio psyche functions.

By all accounts he is one of the most intriguing footballers to have graced the top levels of the game in the past two decades, but his flash-bang personality can only be judged from afar.

Yet we are all too quick to focus on reports of Nazi salutes, defences of Mussolini and a deep association with fascist Ultras – all of which are hugely susceptible to hyperbole.

Gabriele Marcotti, the respected journalist who worked with the new Robins boss on his autobiography, is one man who has the utmost respect for Di Canio when by all right he shouldn’t.

Marcotti’s great-grandfather was beaten, tortured and imprisoned by Italian fascists in the 1930s, yet The Times writer still maintains a defence of the former West Ham forward, who he has known for 12 years.

“To many people the notion of fascism brings back thoughts of Hitler and World War Two and concentration camps,” said Marcotti.

“But it means different things to different people in different countries. In Italy, we were a fascist country in the 1920s and 30s. Now it is the National Alliance who have MEPs and call themselves post-fascist.

“What I can state categorically is that Paolo is neither a racist, nor a homophobe nor an anti-Semite.

“When you consider some of his business associates you would understand that.”

Indeed, Di Canio has eclectic business tastes, ranging from fashion to media and now football management.

But his past will always come back to haunt him, and so too the occasional moments where emotion took over.

The most famous instance in question revolves around the so-called fascist salute to Lazio fans during a Rome derby in 2005.

Di Canio had just scored for his beloved home town club, a club with whose Ultras he used to travel the length and breadth of the country on matchdays, against their arch-rivals.

His response was to acknowledge the fans with a salute so shudderingly reminiscent of the most vilified regime in recent history. But not only does it represent fascism, it is a sign of the club.

Marcotti describes the incident as a crime of passion rather than an action motivated by politics.

“It is a salute 99 per cent of Lazio fans make, and that’s how it was meant, but it is a crime in Italy,” he said.

“At that moment he wasn’t thinking. He was striding towards 40,000 of his own fans who were saluting him that way.

“Not because they are fascists of because they were making a statement, but because they are Lazio.

“And he responded in kind.”

For 17 years I have watched Swindon Town – never in that time has there been a more exciting appointment made from a footballing point of view.

Why then, should the politics of the new boss prevent Town from succeeding?

I am not suggesting those who wish to express an anti-fascist agenda should bite their tongues. Far from it. And fans who wish to stay away from the club remain supporters in my eyes.

But Di Canio is not coming to Wiltshire to develop the latest branch of the National Alliance, he is here to achieve as a manager.

He is here to win. He is here to succeed.

By backing Paolo Di Canio as manager of the Swindon Town football team, I do not believe you are supporting fascism.

If he turns out not to be up to the job tactically or logistically, then is the time to judge.

“He has never managed before but he has taken the captain’s armband a number of times for West Ham, Sheffield Wednesday and Lazio. That shows a sense of leadership,” said Marcotti.

“He has got a good understanding of the mechanics of an athlete’s body.

“Tactically there’s not much to go on, but he graduated from the Italian coaching school first in his class.

“He’s back here because he loves England and English football.

“Anything to do with football he dives right into. He’s got the tools to do well, whether he’s any good – there’s only one way to find out.”

If Glenn Hoddle’s extreme views on the previous lives of the disabled had come out prior to his arrival in 1993, would Swindon fans have created such a furore?

I’d be tempted to say no.

Let’s face it, we don’t know enough about the Di Canio the political theorist to write but a few pages. We have seen enough of him on the football pitch to construct a novel.

If we can deal with the controversy long enough to garner enough information about him as an individual then maybe, just maybe, we can qualify our early judgements.

Until then, look forward to everything Di Canio the footballer could bring to Swindon Town.