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Turns out Ruben Amorim could survive losing against lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive European final against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Regarding Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The New Soccer Order: Directors Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not creating the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for playing excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.