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Turns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim came at the executive and seems to have failed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Over System & Ideology

For example, it was the director who being involved in the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, such directives carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing 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 United to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss them for playing excessively that system. Hire the process guy 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 reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.