The Coach's Critical Mistake? Taking On Wilcox and an Infallible Leadership Class

Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to tango. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Over Formation & Ideology

For example, this was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt analytics and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Football Order: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly 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 join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then bin him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.