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Turns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him 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 as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Regarding System and Ideology

For example, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Soccer Order: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for using too much that system. Hire the project manager and then bin him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.