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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim endured defeat by Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have failed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring 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 that the club's competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Over Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like him – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Supreme Authority Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, 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. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Order: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach only to fire him for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then bin them for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.