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Itranspired Ruben Amorim could survive losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, 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 close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding System & Philosophy

For example, this was the director who being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears similar to an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face for a club they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach and then dismiss him for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and later discard them for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.