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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players 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.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Over System and Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director , after being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when issued by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Authority Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss them for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin him for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.