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Turns out Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Over Formation & Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority In Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not creating the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach only to fire him for playing too much that system. Hire the process guy and then bin them for taking excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.