🔗 Share this article

Turns out the manager was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach came at the executive and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Regarding Formation and Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Authority In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Order: Directors Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and later bin him for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.