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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim could survive losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for losing individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Clash Regarding Formation & Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Power Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Order: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and later bin him for taking excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.