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Itranspired Ruben Amorim could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim came at the executive and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for losing individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Regarding Formation and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Power In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Soccer Order: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not creating the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility 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 are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach only to dismiss him for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later discard him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.