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Transpired he was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining the team's most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a 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 easy, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Regarding System & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who 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 trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority In Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Order: Executives Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach and then fire them for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then discard them for taking excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.