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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Over System & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A New Soccer Order: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later discard him for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.