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Iturns out he was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim came at the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, 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 the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation and Philosophy

For example, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Supreme Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “shall be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from 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, simply better. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Order: Executives Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for using too much that system. Bring in the process guy and then bin him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.