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Itbecame clear he endured losing against lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining 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 with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding System & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, 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 such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then discard him for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.