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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim endured defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering the team's most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view him as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Clash Over System and Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Authority In the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out 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, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt analytics and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that United’s style of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Football Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach and then fire them for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and later bin them for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.