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Turns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view him as merely a functionary within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Regarding System & Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Power Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many companies have such individuals established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really creating the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach only to fire them for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and later bin them for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.