🔗 Share this article

Itranspired the manager was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding System and Ideology

For example, this was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Power Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Football Order: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin them for taking excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.