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Turns out Ruben Amorim could survive losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Over System & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Hierarchy: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many companies have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then discard them for taking excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.