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Turns out Ruben Amorim could survive losing against Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, 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 losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over System and Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – function on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style of play “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A New Football Order: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss him for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.