🔗 Share this article

Turns out he endured defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Over System & Philosophy

For example, it was the director , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Order: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to dismiss them for playing excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.