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Itranspired the manager was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final versus one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach took on the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Regarding System and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority In Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style of play “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The New Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face for a club 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 is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for playing excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then discard him for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.