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Tbecame clear he was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach took on the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation and Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate 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 prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many companies have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not creating the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face for a club they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then discard him for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.