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Turns out Ruben Amorim endured defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach took on the executive and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, 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 with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged while the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach only to fire them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then discard them for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.