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Itranspired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. Survive an important European final against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Regarding System & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Supreme Power In Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention 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 the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Football Order: Executives Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing 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 possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to determine the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents corporate governance at work: the rise of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss them for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then bin them for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.