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Itranspired the manager was able to withstand losing against Grimsby. Survive a decisive European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding System & Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, a veteran 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 to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority In the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the food, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach only to fire them for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then discard them for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.