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Itranspired Ruben Amorim endured losing against lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive European final against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Regarding System and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, 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 commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that United’s style of play “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. 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 Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses 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 individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then discard them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.