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Turns out he was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive an important continental showpiece versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach came at the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Over System and Philosophy

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, such directives carry more weight when issued by a man with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Power In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Order: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many companies have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not 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. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents corporate governance in action: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach and then fire them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later discard them for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.