🔗 Share this article

Itranspired Ruben Amorim endured defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive European final against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding System and Philosophy

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Power In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then fire him for playing excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then discard them for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.