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Tbecame clear the manager was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. You come at 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. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Regarding System & Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority In Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then discard him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.