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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to Grimsby. Survive an important European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach took on the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority In Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Order: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really creating the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then fire them for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.