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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach took on the executive and seems to have failed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Over System and Philosophy

For example, this was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior 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 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”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach and then dismiss them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later bin him for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.