Amorim's Critical Error? Challenging The Executives and the Unassailable Leadership Tier

Iturns out the manager was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation and Philosophy

For example, it was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Authority In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Order: Directors Over Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to dismiss him for playing excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then discard him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.