🔗 Share this article

Transpired he endured losing against Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to tango. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, 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 regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many companies have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach and then fire him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then bin them for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.