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Itranspired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’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 nine months of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Regarding System and Ideology

For example, this was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as 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 ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his 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 deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach and then fire them for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later bin him for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.