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Turns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have failed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding System and Philosophy

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face for a club they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for playing excessively that system. Hire the process guy and then discard him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.