🔗 Share this article

Tbecame clear the manager endured losing against Grimsby. Survive a decisive European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Regarding System & Philosophy

For example, this was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction 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 prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Supreme Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined while those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin him for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.