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Turns out the manager endured losing against Grimsby. He weathered an important European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering the team's most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Over Formation & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

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 full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to fire them for playing too much that system. Bring in the process guy and later bin them for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.