🔗 Share this article

Itranspired the manager could survive losing against Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems 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 crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view him as merely a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Over System & Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Authority In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then discard them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.