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Itranspired Ruben Amorim could survive defeat by Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Over Formation & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. 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 rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really creating the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for playing excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and later discard him for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.