🔗 Share this article

Itranspired the manager could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Over System and Philosophy

For example, this was the director , after being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority Behind Command

Naturally, 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 directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Order: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become less 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 change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.