The Coach's Fatal Error? Challenging The Executives and the Infallible Executive Class

Transpired the manager could survive losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Over Formation & Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes 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 real thinkers in football – men like him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, but still finally accountable 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 for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin him for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.