Amorim's Critical Mistake? Challenging Wilcox and an Unassailable Executive Class

Turns out the manager endured a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, 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 a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind that United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Over System & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later discard them for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.