🔗 Share this article

Iturns out he could survive losing against Grimsby. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Supreme Power In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss him for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then bin him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.