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Itranspired the manager could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst 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.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach took on the executive and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Regarding Formation & Philosophy

For example, it was the director , after having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals 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 superior. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Football Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and later bin him for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.