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Transpired Ruben Amorim could survive defeat by Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Over System & Ideology

For example, it was the director , after being involved in the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference 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 embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not 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. Enzo Maresca takes a squad 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 hired him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to dismiss him for playing excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and later bin them 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 – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.