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Turns out Ruben Amorim could survive losing against lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece versus one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at the executive and seems to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation and Ideology

For example, it was the director who having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. 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 mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to adopt analytics and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Football Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for using too much that system. Bring in the process guy and then discard them for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.