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Transpired Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation and Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.