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Itbecame clear he endured defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Regarding System and Ideology

For example, this was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority In Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference 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 the club to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for playing excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and later discard him for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.