🔗 Share this article

Transpired he was able to withstand defeat by Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation and Ideology

For example, this was the director , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Power Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Order: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not creating the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss him for playing excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and then bin them for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.