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Transpired he could survive losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Regarding System & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Power In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for using too much that system. Hire the project manager and then bin him for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.