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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Over Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like him – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Power Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his desire 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 data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far 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 akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach and then fire them for playing excessively that system. Hire the process guy and then bin him for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.