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Transpired the manager endured a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the intense pressure 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 whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Conflict Over System and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An Supreme Authority In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

The New Soccer Order: Directors Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest 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 hire someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for using too much that system. Hire the process guy and then bin them for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.