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Transpired the manager endured a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Clash Regarding System & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many companies have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach and then fire them for using too much that system. Bring in the process guy and then discard him for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.