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Turns out the manager endured losing against Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Over System & Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director , after having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies 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 impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach only to dismiss him for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and later discard them for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.