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Transpired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand defeat by Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard him as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Over System & Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Hierarchy: Directors Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the food, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later bin him for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.