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Turns out he was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home against 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 in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach took on the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Football Order: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative 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 two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to dismiss them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later discard him for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.