The Coach's Critical Mistake? Taking On The Executives and the Infallible Leadership Tier

Turns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

In truth, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Over Formation and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like him – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Football Order: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later discard him for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.