Amorim's Critical Mistake? Challenging The Executives and the Unassailable Executive Class

Transpired he was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Over System & Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director , after being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Supreme Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach only to fire him for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then discard him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.