🔗 Share this article

Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. He weathered an important European final versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed at his players for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding System & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – simply operate at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

The Supreme Authority Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have these guys established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then bin them for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.