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Transpired the manager was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Over System and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, 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 mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss him for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later discard him for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.