🔗 Share this article

Transpired the manager endured a loss to Grimsby. He weathered an important European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and appears to have failed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding System & Philosophy

For example, this was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many companies have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then discard them for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.