🔗 Share this article

Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim was able to withstand defeat by Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Regarding Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.