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Transpired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on the executive and appears to have missed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Regarding System & Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in industry and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Soccer Order: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not creating the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss him for playing too much that system. Bring in the process guy and then discard him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.