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Iturns out Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over System and Philosophy

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Authority In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not 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 change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach only to fire him for using too much that system. Bring in the project manager and then discard them for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.