🔗 Share this article

Transpired Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed at his players for losing individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Regarding Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like him – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Power Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style of play “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really creating the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach only to dismiss him for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then bin him for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.