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Transpired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Over Formation and Philosophy

For example, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Supreme Power Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach and then fire him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.