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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim endured losing against lower-league opposition. Survive an important continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Over Formation & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Order: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job 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 influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for using too much that system. Hire the process guy and later discard them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.