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Itranspired the manager endured losing against Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on the executive and appears to have missed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Regarding System & Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his superior the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less 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 influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined while the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss him for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin them for taking 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.