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Iturns out he was able to withstand losing against Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view him as merely a functionary within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Clash Regarding System and Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then fire him for playing excessively that system. Hire the process guy and later discard him for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.