The Coach's Critical Error? Challenging Wilcox and the Unassailable Executive Tier

Itranspired Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Regarding System & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – function on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Football Hierarchy: Directors Above 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 such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for using too much that system. Hire the project manager and later bin him for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.