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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim could survive losing against lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach came at the executive and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Regarding System & Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he 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 – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Soccer Order: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive professional resumes. 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 have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then discard him for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.