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Iturns out Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Over System & Philosophy

For example, this was the director , after having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach and then dismiss him for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and later bin him for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.