🔗 Share this article

Turns out Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to Grimsby. Survive a decisive European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach came at the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Over Formation and Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Power In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo 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 United’s style of play “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply 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 acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.