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Transpired the manager was able to withstand defeat by Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Regarding System & Philosophy

For example, this was the director who being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Authority In the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really creating the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for using excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and then discard them for taking excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.