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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim endured losing against Grimsby. Survive an important European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Over Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Power Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Order: Executives Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for using excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.