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Transpired Ruben Amorim endured defeat by Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding System & Philosophy

For example, this was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Authority In Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many companies have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later discard them for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.