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Iturns out the manager could survive losing against Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Regarding System and Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for playing excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.