🔗 Share this article

Iturns out Ruben Amorim endured defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Regarding System and Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like him – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then bin him for taking excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.