Jason Wilcox is under sustained pressure over his performance as Manchester United’s director of football, and the criticism is no longer confined to the stands. Lisandro Martínez, a World Cup winner at 28, spoke out strongly against Wilcox in the aftermath of United’s defeat at Atlético Madrid, and he was not speaking only for himself. Others at the club share his frustration at the output from above and, in their view, expect considerably more from a director of football.
The results are the root of it. United sit 13th in the Premier League after one win from six matches, and the limitations of the squad have been exposed on both domestic and European fronts. Michael Carrick, named permanent manager in May 2026, cannot reasonably carry all of the blame: he is working with a group unable to cope with the rigours of challenging at the top of the Premier League while also facing Europe’s elite. A sporting director tends to go unnoticed when a club is performing well, but at United the players have reached the point where they can take no more.
Recruitment is the central charge. Aside from goalkeeper Senne Lammens, Wilcox would struggle to make the case that any of his signings have markedly increased in value, and the club has passed up opportunities that others took. Wilcox was offered the chance to sign Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest a year before the midfielder joined Manchester City, but decided against moving for a player whose value continued to rise until he was out of United’s price range. If Sir Jim Ratcliffe is so eager to run United as a business, asking why the outlay on players produces so little return is a sensible starting point.
Wilcox’s route to Old Trafford was a swift one. He arrived in April 2024 after less than a year as director of football at Southampton in the Championship, his first executive role in senior football. Before that, the former Blackburn and Leeds winger had built a career in youth development, rising to academy director at Manchester City, where he oversaw the emergence of Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers and earned considerable respect. Whether that amounted to sufficient grounding for running United’s football operation was, and remains, debatable; some of those who have dealt with him believe a senior academy position is where his skills lie.
His appointment was tied to Omar Berrada’s arrival as chief executive, the pair having worked together at City. Wilcox was given the title of technical director and was supposed to work beneath the experienced sporting director Dan Ashworth, who had held similar roles at Brighton and Newcastle. Ashworth lasted only five months under Ratcliffe, and his departure brought Wilcox a rapid promotion. Not everyone inside the club welcomed the direction of travel: some staff already in place when Wilcox arrived grew frustrated at the number of former City Football Group appointments, uneasy at attempts to remake United in the image of one of their fiercest rivals.
Wilcox was also influential in the recruitment of Ruben Amorim, who had a specific way of playing but not the players to carry out his demands. The experiment failed, accelerated by a breakdown in the relationship between head coach and director of football, who did not see eye to eye on tactics, among other things.
In the transfer market there is an increasing emphasis on Premier League experience. This summer Youri Tielemans, Andrey Santos and Carlos Baleba arrived from top-flight English clubs for a combined £155m. The midfield did require an overhaul, with Casemiro leaving and Manuel Ugarte, currently injured, never reaching the requisite level, but that outlay left no money for a left-back or a backup striker, leaving supporters eager for an explanation. In the defeat at Atlético, Carrick fielded 20-year-old centre-back Ayden Heaven out of position to cover Luke Shaw’s latest absence, a measure of how shallow the squad has become.
Ratcliffe remains publicly supportive. “When I listen to Jason speak, I get what he’s saying,” he told the Times in March 2025, describing Wilcox as a warm character with a sense of humour who knows what he is talking about. The pair can often be found sitting next to one another in discussion at matches. Ratcliffe has shown a ruthless business approach since investing in United, but the strength of that relationship means removing Wilcox would be one of his more difficult personal decisions and a bold call.
The planning at this stage is for next summer and who is best placed to navigate it, with finances likely to be tight in January. If results continue to be substandard, Ratcliffe and Berrada will be forced to weigh their options. Wilcox’s bond with the pair is important, but Carrick holds far more credit with a fanbase that wields power and has strong reservations about the director of football. Removing Wilcox would be the more widely popular decision, yet it would also amount to an acceptance of failure from the top brass. Ratcliffe once said Wilcox had the “best eyes in the club”.