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Transpired the manager could survive losing against Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Over Formation and Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his superior the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

The New Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and later discard them for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.