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Tbecame clear he could survive a loss to Grimsby. Survive an important European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, undermining the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’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 tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view him as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Over System & Ideology

For example, this was the director who being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Executives Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to fire him for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then discard him for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.