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Turns out Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Regarding System & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Soccer Order: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to fire him for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.