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Transpired the manager was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach came at the executive and seems to have failed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Over Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Supreme Power In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to fire them for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later discard them for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.