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

Turns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard him as merely a drudge 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 mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Regarding Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was the director , after having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Power Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, 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 can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then 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 fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.