Amorim's Fatal Error? Challenging The Executives and an Unassailable Executive Class

Transpired the manager endured losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view him as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Over Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Soccer Order: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, 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 wins domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined while those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach only to fire him for playing excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and later bin him for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.