🔗 Share this article

Transpired Ruben Amorim could survive losing against Grimsby. He weathered a decisive European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a 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 paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has proved himself as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Over System & Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline 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 activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for playing too much that system. Hire the project manager and later discard them for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.