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Itranspired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand defeat by Grimsby. He weathered a decisive European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have failed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed at his players for losing individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Regarding System & Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Power In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to go into an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many companies have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, 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 offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents corporate governance at work: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss him for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later bin him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.