🔗 Share this article

Turns out the manager could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view him as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over System and Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else would you 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?

The New Soccer Order: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

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. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to fire him for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then discard them for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.