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Itranspired the manager was able to withstand defeat by Grimsby. Survive a decisive European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach took on the executive and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months 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 Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Over System & Ideology

For example, this was the director , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, 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 line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting 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 this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many companies have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach only to fire them for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then discard him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.