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Iturns out Ruben Amorim could survive losing against lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation and Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A New Soccer Order: Directors Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for playing excessively that system. Hire the process guy and later bin them for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.