🔗 Share this article

Transpired the manager was able to withstand defeat by Grimsby. Survive a decisive European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over System & Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved formation. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears similar to an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Order: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive 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 overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for playing excessively that system. Hire the project manager and later bin him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.