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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach came at the executive and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Over System & Ideology

For example, it was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A New Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then fire them for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then discard him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.