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Itranspired the manager endured losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach 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 feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Over System & Philosophy

For example, it was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly 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 change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.