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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim could survive losing against Grimsby. He weathered a decisive European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, 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 individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Over System & Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear 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 embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A New Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later discard him for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.