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Transpired the manager could survive a loss to Grimsby. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Conflict Regarding Formation & Philosophy

For example, it was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Supreme Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But 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 guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents corporate governance at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach only to dismiss him for using excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and later discard him for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.