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Itranspired he was able to withstand losing against Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach came at the executive and appears to have failed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Conflict Over System and Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Authority In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich 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 building of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Soccer Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then discard him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.