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Turns out Ruben Amorim could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Regarding Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director , after having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to abandon his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Order: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role 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 have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for using too much that system. Hire the process guy and later bin them for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.