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Transpired the manager could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered 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, his rigid approach, squandering the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s 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 frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Conflict Over Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Order: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not creating the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach only to fire him for playing too much that system. Bring in the project manager and then discard them for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.