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Transpired he endured defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed at his players for losing individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Over System and Philosophy

For example, this was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. 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 publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy 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 very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.