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Transpired the manager could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for losing individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to 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 prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Football Order: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach and then fire him for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then discard them for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.