The Coach's Critical Error? Challenging Wilcox and the Unassailable Executive Class

Turns out the manager was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Over System and Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have these guys established? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach and then fire him for playing excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and then bin him for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.