🔗 Share this article

Iturns out the manager endured a loss to Grimsby. Survive an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to tango. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and seems to have failed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may 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: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding Formation & Philosophy

For example, it was the director who being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power In the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power 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 emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for playing excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and later bin them for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.