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Itbecame clear the manager could survive a loss to Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding System and Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

The New Football Order: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then discard him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.