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Transpired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on the executive and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over System & Philosophy

For example, this was the director who being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach and then dismiss them for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then discard them for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.