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Transpired he was able to withstand defeat by Grimsby. He weathered a decisive European final against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on Jason Wilcox 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 failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding System & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances 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. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Authority Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Order: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach only to fire them for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then bin them for taking excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.