🔗 Share this article

Itbecame clear the manager endured defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Regarding Formation and Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach only to fire him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later bin him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.