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Transpired Ruben Amorim could survive losing against lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Supreme Authority In Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for using excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and later discard him for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.