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Itranspired Ruben Amorim could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Over Formation & Ideology

For example, this was the director , after 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 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. 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. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place 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 strategy by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach and then dismiss him for using too much that system. Hire the process guy and then discard him for taking excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.