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Itbecame clear the manager endured a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Over Formation & Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued 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.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Power In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for playing too much that system. Hire the project manager and later discard him for taking excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.