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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim was able to withstand losing against Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach took on the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his nine months of experience with the Saints, to view him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over System and Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, such directives carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Power In Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach and then fire him for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then discard them for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.