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Itranspired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for losing individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Over Formation & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Supreme Authority Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin him for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.