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Transpired the manager could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over System and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later bin him for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.