🔗 Share this article

Tbecame clear the manager endured a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Regarding System and Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not creating the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss him for using excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for taking excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.