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Transpired Ruben Amorim endured a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive European final versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not creating the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach and then fire him for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin him for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.