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Tbecame clear the manager endured a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Over System and Ideology

For example, this was the director who having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power In Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really creating the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then discard him for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.