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Itranspired Ruben Amorim endured a loss to Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on the executive and seems to have failed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Regarding Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for taking excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.