Amorim's Fatal Mistake? Challenging Wilcox and the Infallible Leadership Class

Turns out he could survive a loss to Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Over Formation & Ideology

For example, this was the director , after having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances 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 questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not creating the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss him for playing excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and later discard him for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.