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Tbecame clear he endured losing against Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation & Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like him – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, 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, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The New Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then discard him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.