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Itranspired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand losing against Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach came at the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his nine months of experience 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 his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Over Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power In the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for using too much that system. Hire the project manager and then discard them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.