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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim could survive losing against Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s most promising 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 would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach came at the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire 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 at Southampton, to view him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding System and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the rise of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later discard them for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.