🔗 Share this article

Iturns out he was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for losing individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Conflict Over System & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for playing too much that system. Bring in the project manager and later discard them for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.