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Tbecame clear the manager could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach took on the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Over Formation and Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like him – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Authority In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized 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 United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Order: Directors Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not creating the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach only to fire them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later discard him for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.