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

Transpired he endured defeat by Grimsby. He weathered an important European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Over System & Philosophy

For example, it was the director who being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his beloved formation. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power In Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to dismiss him for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later bin them for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.