🔗 Share this article

Transpired Ruben Amorim endured a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach came at the executive and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Regarding System and Ideology

For example, it was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss him for using too much that system. Bring in the process guy and then bin him for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.