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Itbecame clear he was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership defender 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 often railed at his players for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Regarding System & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The New Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach and then fire him for using too much that system. Bring in the process guy and then bin them for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.