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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim could survive losing against Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach took on the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has proved himself as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Over System and Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate 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, these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, 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. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for playing too much that system. Bring in the project manager and later discard him for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.