🔗 Share this article

Turns out he was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for losing individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. 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: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Clash Over System & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents corporate governance at work: the rise of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later discard them for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.