The Coach's Critical Error? Taking On The Executives and an Unassailable Executive Tier

Turns out Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to Grimsby. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over System and Philosophy

For example, it was the director , after being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior 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. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not creating the food, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for playing too much that system. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.