🔗 Share this article

Tbecame clear the manager was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Over System & Ideology

For example, this was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Power Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Order: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then discard them for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.