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Transpired Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation and Philosophy

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Authority In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join a club 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 place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really creating the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then discard him for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.