🔗 Share this article

Turns out he could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Regarding Formation & Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to 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.

An Ultimate Power In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A New Football Order: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using too much that system. Hire the process guy and then bin him for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.