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Iturns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership defender in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach 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 at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation & Philosophy

For example, this was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Soccer Order: Executives Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for using excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and then discard them for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.