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Iturns out Ruben Amorim could survive losing against Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Over Formation and Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. 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 metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged while the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach and then fire them for using too much that system. Bring in the process guy and later bin them for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.