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Iturns out the manager endured a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Over Formation & Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he 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 departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Power In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many companies have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to fire him for using too much that system. Hire the process guy and then discard him for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.