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Iturns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand defeat by Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad 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 the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Clash Regarding System and Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like him – function on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style of play “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys established? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later bin him for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.