Itbecame clear the manager endured defeat by Grimsby. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, undermining the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.
Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.
And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors are now rightly wary.
To illustrate, it was the director who being involved in the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.
Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to receive.
Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “will be determined by this group”.
Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?
This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not creating the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.
In the meantime, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.
And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach only to fire him for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later bin him for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.
Milan is een ervaren opticien met een passie voor visuele technologie en klantgerichtheid.
