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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim could survive losing against Grimsby. Survive an important European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Regarding System & Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he declared that United’s style of play “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later discard them for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.