🔗 Share this article

Turns out he endured defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view him as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Conflict Over Formation & Philosophy

For example, this was the director who being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in industry and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not creating the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to dismiss him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then discard them for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.