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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim endured losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach came at the executive and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Regarding System and Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Power Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Order: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then bin him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.