🔗 Share this article

Turns out Ruben Amorim endured defeat by Grimsby. Survive an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over System & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – simply operate on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to receive.

An Supreme Authority Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Order: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, 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 secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for playing too much that system. Hire the project manager and later discard him for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.