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Iturns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at the executive and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Order: Directors Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then discard them for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.