The Coach's Fatal Error? Challenging The Executives and the Unassailable Executive Tier

Itbecame clear he endured defeat by Grimsby. Survive an important European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Clash Regarding Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really creating the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin them for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.