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Itbecame clear the manager endured defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive continental showpiece versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as merely a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Over Formation & Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really creating the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become 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 can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then discard them for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.