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Tbecame clear he could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Over System & Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The New Soccer Order: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really creating the food, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later discard them for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.