Amorim's Critical Error? Challenging Wilcox and the Unassailable Executive Tier

Iturns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final versus one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation & Philosophy

For example, it was the director , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Football Order: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for playing too much that system. Hire the project manager and later discard them for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.