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Itranspired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding System & Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not creating the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and later bin them for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.