Amorim's Critical Error? Challenging The Executives and the Infallible Leadership Tier

Turns out the manager could survive defeat by Grimsby. Survive an important European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. 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 nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority In the Throne

But of course, 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 ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to dismiss them for using too much that system. Bring in the process guy and then discard him 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 – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.