🔗 Share this article

Turns out he endured a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Clash Over System & Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director , after having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be determined 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 immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative 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 two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined while the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later discard them for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.