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Iturns out Ruben Amorim endured losing against Grimsby. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Over System & Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director , after being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince him to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Authority In Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention 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 the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire 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 embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later bin them for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.