🔗 Share this article

Iturns out the manager was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against 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 campaign, the coach took on the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation & Ideology

For example, it was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he might agree to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Authority In the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place 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 determine the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later bin him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.