The Coach's Fatal Error? Taking On Wilcox and the Infallible Executive Tier

Itbecame clear he could survive losing against Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has proved himself to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Over System and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own 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 comprehend it.

An Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Order: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead 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 is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach and then dismiss him for using excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and later discard him for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.