Welcome to Manchester United Jason Wilcox
Manchester United have recently confirmed another front office acquisition in the form of Southampton director of football, Jason Wilcox. The former Blackburn Rovers winger joins the Red Devils as technical director. He replaces Darren Fletcher who loosely wore that title for the last three seasons. Fletcher will now take on a roll in first team development and the academy set up under Wilcox.
New Manchester United CEO, Omar Berrada was keen to bring Wilcox in quickly because the two have a history together. Both of them were responsible for youth development and recruitment at Manchester City. Together they are credited with much of the success and progress seen at the Etihad since Pep’s arrival.
What’s more, Wilcox’s confirmation further shows Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s determination to return United to the top of elite football. The idea being, recruit the best people to run the club and trophies will inevitably follow.
Jason Wilcox brings with him the experience as a player of winning the Premier League and representing England. He also has more than decade of experience developing youth players into top talents. Manchester United’s heritage of developing elite players means that Wilcox’s arrival will be a welcome leveling up for the club’s academy and scouting department.
Jason Wilcox, the Man
Jason Wilcox was born March 15, 1971 in Famworth, England, just outside of Bolton. As a young athlete Wilcox had two loves, football and martial arts. He became a blackbelt before his 16th birthday in judo, even representing England in the Commonwealth Games.
However, by the age of 17, Wilcox was forced to choose one sport over the other. The rest is history. Although, his brief stint as a fighter was not for nothing. His decades spent studying martial arts have greatly influenced his philosophies in club management.
He speaks a lot in his interviews about integrating ideas of alignment and cooperation across all club departments. Like Ratcliffe and Berrada, Wilcox believes that all aspects of a club need to be on the same page for success to be possible. Each department needs to communicate with the others under the same unified direction.
Sadly this harmony within the club has long been lacking at Old Trafford and Carrington. Hopefully, their arrival as well as the imminent arrival of Dan Ashworth means Manchester United can finally do what is necessary to realign the club and help drive the Red Devils back to trophy winning ways.
Jason Wilcox’s Career in a Nutshell
As a player Jason Wilcox spent time as a winger for Blackburn, Leeds, Leicester City and Blackpool, amassing close to 400 club appearances. He also won himself three England caps during his playing days. And in 1995 he won the Premier League with his boyhood club Blackburn Rovers.
After retiring in 2006, he went into football commentary. Wilcox joined the BBC radio team and became a sports writer for the Lancashire Telegraph. After a six year hiatus, he returned to football as an academy coach at Manchester City in 2012. Only one year after Omar Berrada joined City as head of international business development.
Over the next eleven years, the two would go on to create a partnership that would see Manchester City’s academy and recruitment create one of the Premier League era’s greatest teams. In that time Wilcox worked his way up the City ladder from coach to academy director.
His leadership helped City win two FA Youth Cup finals and the U18’s national championship. Wilcox was also head of the City academy while youth stars such as Phil Foden, Jadon Sancho, Cole Palmer, Rico Lewis and Michael Olise were all learning their trade at the Etihad.
In 2023 Wilcox left the Citizens for Southampton. There he was made Director of Football for the Championship side. His impact was felt immediately as Southampton are well in the hunt for promotion to the Premier League next season.
After only one year with the Saints, the Manchester United rebuild was too great a prospect for Wilcox. The call to work with former colleague, Berrada, at the biggest club in the world was enough to lure the former premier league winner to Old Trafford.
Wilcox’s Roll at Manchester United
Wilcox was brought in by Berrada to replace Darren Fletcher as United’s technical director. In this roll he will be responsible for overseeing the youth academy, player maturation, recruitment, and the implementation of a clear vision for Manchester United’s player development.
His reputation at City and Southampton is that of setting the highest possible standards. He is described as creating an elite environment that holds players accountable. Wilcox is also known as being very approachable. His philosophies and empathy for players made for, not just an enjoyable experience for young athletes, but a developmental environment that proceeded to produce some of the sports best next-gen talents.
Ideally at United, Wilcox will help to re-establish United’s academy as the best in the world. Many fans, myself included, are hoping his arrival will signal an alignment between Manchester United’s youth development and recruitment with the clubs heritage of building success rather than buying it.
What Next for Wilcox and the Red Devils?
Next up for Manchester United and Jason Wilcox will be signing Dan Ashworth as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the current Newcastle DOF is intimately aware of the Magpies’ recruitment strategy this summer, having formulated much of it himself. Meaning, Newcastle are not in any rush to let him go.
While United are negotiating his release he has been placed on indefinite gardening leave. Newcastle, understandably do not want to let Ashworth join a rival club before the start of next season. The fear obviously being that Ashworth would give away all of Newcastle’s strategies for next season and the summer transfer window.
At the moment it is being reported that Newcastle want between $18 – $20million in compensation and Ashworth would be not be allowed to join United until September at the earliest. Though some rumors place that number north of $25 million and Ashworth wouldn’t be allowed to join United until after the January window. Sir Jim Ratcliffe has stated in several interviews that these negotiations are extremely complex. And United do not want to pay over the odds for Ashworth.
Apparently the two clubs are locked in negotiations to find a balance between United recruiting Ashworth in a timely manor for a reasonable fee and Newcastle needing to protect their proprietary strategies.
Ratcliffe has distanced himself from any kind of timeline for Ashworth’s arrival, but it is believed by most media outlets that the deal is immanent.
An Exciting Arrival for Fan and the Club
As the Red Devil revolution continues under Ratcliffe and Co. Jason Wilcox becomes the latest front office recruit. The one time Premier League winner is tasked with helping to rebuild the club from the youth level up. For almost a decade the only player to make a lasting mark on the first team squad is Marcus Rashford.
However, Wilcox’s arrival will place emphasis on success through matriculating top talent into the first team.
Wilcox’s arrival to Manchester United excites me a lot. The club has always been their most successful when the team is stocked with academy graduates. But, sadly this sentiment has dwindled in the last decade, since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
If Ashworth’s and Wilcox’s history is any indication on what to expect, all United fans should be excited. Both men are blue-chip operators in the world of professional football. And both harbor an approach to the game that almost guarantees Manchester United will have a world class front office.
If there is anything that we can learn from our growing list of successful rivals, it is that success begins with the right people operating the club. So, at the very least fans can see the arrival of Wilcox, as well as Berrada and Ashworth as the biggest steps towards catching up to the Manchester City’s of the world that United have taken since the end of the Ferguson era.
Glory, Glory Man United!
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