Amorim's Critical Error? Taking On Wilcox and the Infallible Leadership Tier

Transpired the manager could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary 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 appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Over Formation and Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – simply operate on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Supreme Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Order: Directors Over Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents corporate governance in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then bin him for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.