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Itranspired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive European final against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Clash Over Formation & Philosophy

For example, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An Supreme Authority In the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Football Order: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold 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 public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach and then dismiss him for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin him for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.