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Itbecame clear he could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Authority In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that United’s style of play “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many companies have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach only to fire them for using excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and then discard them for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.