Jason Wilcox and the shifting scrutiny on sporting directors

Kate Mason (0:01)

The Athletic FC.

Jason Wilcox has been in the eye of the storm at Manchester United ever since. Lisandro Martinez publicly blamed the club's director of football for the current balance of the squad. So with sporting directors more in vogue and more recognisable than ever before, are they no longer safe from scrutiny? Hello, we are The Athletic FC Podcast. I'm Kate Mason, joined in studio by our regular Thursday panel. It is former England goalkeeper Rob Green. Our senior news reporter Matt Slater. And down the line in New York as ever, Adam Crafton. Good to see you. Our reigning Sports Journalist of the Year.

Adam Crafton (0:47)

Hello. How is everyone in the UK?

Kate Mason (0:50)

Everyone's great. When are you going to come and visit us, Adam?

Adam Crafton (0:52)

I'm waiting for an invite.

I've not had an invite. You're not the Pope. I've not had a class of flight confirmed.

Rob Green (1:03)

I think that was an invite from Kate, by the way. That's her way of inviting you.

Kate Mason (1:07)

Please, it's my birthday in a couple of weeks. Get yourself over here.

Adam Crafton (1:12)

Which day is your birthday? Is it a podcast day?

Kate Mason (1:14)

Sadly not. But we can make the whole week all about it. November 22nd, guys, get it in the diary. Right. Should we get to today's show?

Director of Football, Sporting Director, Technical Director, General Manager, Chief Football Officer. So many titles, so many job descriptions. Later on, we're going to get into Jason Wilcox and his issues at Manchester United. But first, we're going to try to outline what these job titles actually mean. Joining us to do that is Joel Roberts, who is the Managing Director of the Association of Sporting Directors. Joel, great to have you with us in the podcast and great to see you. We see these job titles everywhere in football now.

Would you say they more or less mean the same thing?

Joel Roberts (2:03)

Well, I think the simplest way to describe a sport and director, all of the above terms, is ultimately a person responsible for providing strategic leadership and direction across the football operations of a club. Historically, particularly in England, we were used to the traditional manager who had responsibility for almost everything.

That's made the transition to this sport and director model more visible and sometimes more difficult than possibly in other football cultures. But the role is really just a response to the increasing complexity of running a modern football club. So as the games evolved, the demands have become far greater. While the head coach remains absolutely central to performance, their expertise is clearly predominant in coaching, tactics and seeking to win games. So there is a need for somebody to consider continuity in a longer term perspective beyond the first team. I would consider it somebody who can serve as a conduit between the head coach and the owner and the CEO is involved in shaping and delivering the football strategy and appointing key people and then connecting the different parts of the football operation.

Rob Green (3:12)

Joel, just from a perspective from a dressing room from the players and looking at a sporting director, the accusation from within a dressing room is no one really knows what they're doing. It feels like that is a similar perspective from the public sense.

You want to affect the culture of a club, but do you feel that the sporting director is damned if he doesn't, damned if he doesn't, if he does come into contact with, say, the players a lot when you're trying to create a culture, then you'd be seen as meddling, or then if you're hands-off, seen with sort of nothing to do with the club or no great influence?

Joel Roberts (3:53)

I think what becomes important in that scenario is the relationship with the head coach, because then if they are aligned and have really clear thoughts on what the culture should look like, how we operate on a daily basis, and those consistencies of behaviours, then actually you will know this from your own experiences. I would imagine that there's almost the dressing room is sacred.

And so a lot of sporting directors, certainly in Europe, they'd be more inclined to go into the dressing room. I think it depends club to club, because over here, it's not necessarily a place for executives who ordinarily would want to go in. I think what I would say to that though is that whatever you decide to do as a club, it's important that you're consistent with that behavior, because if your sporting director only goes in when you win games, and then when you get beat and the pressure starts to rise, and doesn't go anywhere near the dressing room, then I think that can cause confusion and leaves a space for speculation. So I think it's an interesting one, but in ultimately really clearly defining who you are and going back to that identity piece.