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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim could survive defeat by Grimsby. He weathered a decisive European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Regarding Formation and Ideology

For example, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Power In Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his 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 the club to embrace analytics and analytics. 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”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined while those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach only to fire him for playing too much that system. Bring in the project manager and later discard him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.