🔗 Share this article

Transpired the manager could survive a loss to Grimsby. He weathered a decisive European final versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have failed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Regarding System & Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority In Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Order: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many companies have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach and then fire them for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and later discard him for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.