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Turns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. He weathered a decisive European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach came at the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. 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 ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The New Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The 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 overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss him for using excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and later bin them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.