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Transpired he endured defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Regarding System & Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director , after having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director 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. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into a club and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and later discard him for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.