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Transpired Ruben Amorim endured defeat by Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Regarding Formation & Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, 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, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being ready to receive.

The Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner 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, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Football Order: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about defining the vision 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 literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss him for using too much that system. Hire the process guy and later bin them for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.