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Turns out the manager could survive defeat by Grimsby. Survive a decisive European final against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to the team's most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view him as merely a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding System and Ideology

For example, this was the director , after being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Order: Directors Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and later bin them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.