The head spinning events at Old Trafford over the weekend have left many football fans perplexed trying to find an explanation for ‘what the hell just happened’.
Minutes after Manchester United’s 1-1 draw at Leeds on Sunday, their manager, Ruben Amorim, used the post match press conference to launch a broadside at the club’s Director of Football, Jason Wilcox.
Amorim’s beef was that he was meant to be the manager of the football club- not the coach- and all team affairs should be his decisions. Somewhere there was a communication failure. Either he was appointed team manager or not, or was downgraded in the last few weeks from manager to coach with fewer responsibilities.
The Empire struck back swiftly and decisively on Monday morning when Amorim was duly sacked by Wilcox after fourteen months at the club.
The club cited Amorim’s ‘emotional and inconsistent’ behaviour as the reason for the dismissal.
Here’s a few insights;
Firstly, Amorim’s status. Dysfunctional organisations often have confusion over an individual’s role or responsibilities. Amorim found himself responsible for the team’s results but he complained in the press conference that he didn’t have the full power to change team strategies.
Responsibility without power is a recipe for failure in all organisations. Poor management hide behind this. There can often be disharmony in sports organisations, but unless senior management and team manager are on the same page, failure ensues. Senior management and team manager in these circumstances weren’t even in the same library.
Successfully organisations need stability and having a sporting director who is psychologically aware who can guide the coach is essential.
Finally, for the board to describe their manager’s behaviour as ‘emotional and inconsistent’ suggests either a lack of due diligence of the board when appointing Amorim, or Amorim has been under incredible pressure from the board and he finally cracked. We all have breaking points.
If Manchester United want success they need to look at a psychologically aware structure that values trust, honesty and integrity. These are not available in large amounts in many football clubs these days. As the saying goes ‘any organisation is only as good as the relationships inside it’.