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Transpired Ruben Amorim endured a loss to Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach took on the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding Formation & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss him for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later bin them for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.