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Iturns out the manager was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Over Formation & Philosophy

For example, this was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued by a man with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach only to dismiss him for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and later bin him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.