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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Regarding System and Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power In Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private 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 adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many companies have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then discard him for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.