The Coach's Fatal Mistake? Taking On The Executives and the Unassailable Executive Tier

Itbecame clear he could survive defeat by Grimsby. He weathered an important European final against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Over System and Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership 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. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Soccer Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. 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 standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach and then dismiss him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later discard them for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.