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Tbecame clear Ruben Amorim could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Over System & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director , after being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style of play “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Order: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. 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 whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss them for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later bin him for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.