🔗 Share this article

Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim endured defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Over Formation and Philosophy

For example, this was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Football Order: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach only to fire him for playing too much that system. Bring in the process guy and then discard them for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.