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Itranspired Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind that United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Over System and Philosophy

For example, it was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not creating the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach only to dismiss him for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then discard him for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.