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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim endured losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga 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 little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: 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 everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding Formation and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority In Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Order: Executives Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join 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? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility 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 choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for using excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and later discard him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.