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Iturns out Ruben Amorim endured a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at the executive and seems to have failed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view him as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding System & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man with the unimpeachable 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. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Power In Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that United’s style of play “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then fire him for using excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.