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Transpired Ruben Amorim endured losing against Grimsby. He weathered an important European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to view him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Over Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director , after being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being ready to receive.

The Supreme Authority Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Football Order: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then discard him for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.