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Turns out Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to Grimsby. Survive an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Regarding Formation and Ideology

For example, this was the director , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Power Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, 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 set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for playing too much that system. Hire the project manager and then bin him for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.