🔗 Share this article

Transpired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. The most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Regarding Formation & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Power In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really creating the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later bin him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.