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Itranspired Ruben Amorim endured a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Over Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away 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 – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

The Supreme Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Order: Executives Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach only to fire them for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then bin them for taking excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.