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Itranspired the manager was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. Survive an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Over Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – 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 complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Authority In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to dismiss him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin him for taking excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.