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Transpired the manager endured defeat by Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach took on the executive and appears to have missed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation and Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power In 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 superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Football Order: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin him for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.