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Turns out he endured losing against Grimsby. He weathered an important European final against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have failed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Over Formation and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired 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 were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted 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 energy to join a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and later bin him for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.