The Coach's Fatal Error? Challenging The Executives and an Unassailable Leadership Tier

Turns out the manager endured losing against Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over System & Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Power In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his superior the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later discard them for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.