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Transpired he was able to withstand losing against Grimsby. Survive an important European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of a England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary 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 mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many companies have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later discard them for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.