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Itbecame clear he could survive defeat by Grimsby. Survive an important European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over System & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Order: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for using too much that system. Bring in the project manager and later bin him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.