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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim endured a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have failed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Over System & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Supreme Authority Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Soccer Order: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many companies have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for using too much that system. Hire the process guy and then discard them for taking excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.