🔗 Share this article

Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim was able to withstand defeat by Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for losing individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on 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 largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, 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 that United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding System and Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director who having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately 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 data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Order: Directors Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach only to fire them for playing excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then discard him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.