Amorim's Critical Error? Taking On Wilcox and an Unassailable Leadership Class

Turns out he endured defeat by Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding System & Philosophy

For example, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Power Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Football Order: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss him for using too much that system. Hire the process guy and then discard them for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.