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Iturns out he was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding System and Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then discard them for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.