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Turns out the manager was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Over System and Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane 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 equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Power In Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears similar to an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The New Football Order: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for using too much that system. Hire the process guy and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.