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

Iturns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Regarding Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – function on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not creating the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children 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 continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later discard them for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.