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Transpired the manager endured losing against Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach took on the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Regarding System and Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the product, but still 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 marketing it: the receptionist 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 secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss them for playing excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then bin them for taking excessive time. 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 – are in charge.