🔗 Share this article

Turns out he could survive losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, 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 the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode 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 him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over System & Philosophy

For example, this was the director who being involved in the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Power In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Soccer Order: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss him for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and later bin him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.