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Turns out the manager was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering the team's most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have failed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than 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 wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Over Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director who having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority In 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, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt analytics and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist 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 better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later discard them for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.