The Coach's Critical Error? Challenging The Executives and the Unassailable Executive Tier

Itbecame clear the manager endured defeat by Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over System & Ideology

For example, it was the director who having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for using excessively that system. Hire the process guy and later discard him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.