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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim could survive losing against lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation and Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Power Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Soccer Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then fire him for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then discard him for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.