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Iturns out the manager endured losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at the executive and seems to have failed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Regarding System and Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives 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 suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to join a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for using excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and then bin them for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.