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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Regarding System & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power In 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 commands of his superior the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then bin him for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.