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Itranspired the manager endured losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to view him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding System and Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like him – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach and then fire him for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin him for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.