🔗 Share this article

Itranspired Ruben Amorim could survive losing against Grimsby. Survive an important European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was the director who being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An 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, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club 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”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation 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 fire him for playing excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and later discard them for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.