🔗 Share this article

Tbecame clear he could survive defeat by Grimsby. Survive an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of a England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view him as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Over Formation & Philosophy

For example, this was the director , after having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued by a man with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being ready to receive.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into a club and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative 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 two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for playing too much that system. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.