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Transpired Ruben Amorim could survive losing against lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Over System & Ideology

For example, this was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for using too much that system. Hire the process guy and later discard them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.