🔗 Share this article

Tbecame clear the manager was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding Formation and Ideology

For example, it was the director who having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like him – function on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Power In Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A New Soccer Order: Directors Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach and then dismiss them for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin him for taking excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.