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Turns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. 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 animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view him as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to 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 regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

An Supreme Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Executives Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have these guys established? What number of 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 strategy by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not creating the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss them for playing too much that system. Hire the project manager and later discard him for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.