🔗 Share this article

Turns out the manager was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Over System and Ideology

For example, this was the director , after having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for playing too much that system. Hire the project manager and later bin them for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.