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Transpired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, undermining the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation and Ideology

For example, it was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like him – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority In the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach and then dismiss him for using too much that system. Bring in the process guy and then discard them for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.