🔗 Share this article

Itranspired the manager was able to withstand losing against Grimsby. He weathered a decisive European final against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a 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 easy, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Regarding System & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team 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 departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable 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 tactics by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for playing excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.