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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim was able to withstand losing against Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Over Formation and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like him – function on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Supreme Power In Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A New Football Order: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss him for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later bin them for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.