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Iturns out he could survive losing against Grimsby. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership defender in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding System and Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like him – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Power In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director 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 made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The New Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for using too much that system. Bring in the project manager and then discard him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.