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Transpired Ruben Amorim endured losing against Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have missed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors are now justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding System & Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the food, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using too much that system. Hire the project manager and later discard him for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.