The Coach's Fatal Error? Taking On The Executives and an Unassailable Leadership Tier

Transpired Ruben Amorim endured defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Regarding Formation & Philosophy

For example, this was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for playing excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and later bin him for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.