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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim endured a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Over System and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt analytics and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Football Order: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for playing excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and then bin him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.