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Tbecame clear he was able to withstand defeat by Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling 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 top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim came at the executive and seems to have failed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Regarding System and Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director , after being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for playing excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and then discard them for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.