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Turns out the manager could survive defeat by Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Regarding Formation & Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

The Supreme Power In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach only to fire him for using too much that system. Hire the project manager and then discard them for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.