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Iturns out the manager could survive losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding System and Ideology

For example, it was the director , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Power In Command

Naturally, 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, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Soccer Order: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then bin him for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.