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Tbecame clear the manager was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view him as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Regarding System & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved formation. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like him – simply operate on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Order: Executives Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to go into an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for playing too much that system. Bring in the process guy and then bin him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.