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Tbecame clear the manager endured a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. 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, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared 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 background in industry and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for using too much that system. Hire the process guy and later discard him for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.