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Transpired Ruben Amorim endured defeat by Grimsby. Survive a decisive European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Over Formation and Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Order: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach and then fire him for using excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and later bin them for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.