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Turns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge 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 verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over System & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for playing excessively that system. Hire the process guy and then discard him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.