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Itbecame clear he could survive losing against Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and seems to have failed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray 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 Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Regarding System & Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, 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 data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to fire him for playing excessively that system. Hire the process guy and later discard him for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.