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Itranspired Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive continental showpiece versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Regarding System & Ideology

For example, this was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Power Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for playing too much that system. Hire the project manager and later discard him for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.