🔗 Share this article

Itranspired he endured losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’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 dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for using excessively that system. Hire the process guy and later bin him for taking excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.