🔗 Share this article

Turns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. Survive a decisive European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding System and Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style of play “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Order: Executives Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for using excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and later discard him for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.