Amorim's Critical Error? Challenging The Executives and the Unassailable Executive Class

Turns out the manager was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Regarding Formation and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Soccer Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss them for using too much that system. Bring in the process guy and then discard them for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.