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Iturns out the manager could survive defeat by Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Conflict Over System and Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears similar to an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for playing excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and later bin them for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.