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Iturns out Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to Grimsby. Survive a decisive European final against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for losing individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Over Formation and Philosophy

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued by a man with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Supreme Power In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Order: Executives Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not creating the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin him for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.