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Iturns out the manager could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Clash Regarding System and Philosophy

For example, this was the director who being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An Supreme 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. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that United’s style of play “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach and then fire him for playing too much that system. Bring in the process guy and then bin 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 grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.