🔗 Share this article

Transpired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. Survive a decisive European final against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence 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 easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation & Ideology

For example, it was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree 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. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “shall be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for using excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and later discard him for taking excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.