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Tbecame clear the manager endured losing against Grimsby. He weathered an important European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to view him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Regarding System and Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss him for playing too much that system. Hire the process guy and later discard him for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.