🔗 Share this article

Tbecame clear he could survive defeat by Grimsby. Survive an important continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Over Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – function on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss them for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later discard him for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.