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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Regarding System and Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director , after having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Supreme Authority In the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss him for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and later discard them 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 grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.