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Turns out the manager could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at the executive and seems to have failed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director who having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – simply operate on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Order: Executives Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less 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 very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach only to fire them for using too much that system. Bring in the process guy and later bin them for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.