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Transpired Ruben Amorim endured defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Regarding Formation & Ideology

For example, this was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline 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, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Supreme Power In Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job 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 can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach only to fire him for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later discard him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.