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Transpired Ruben Amorim could survive defeat by Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Clash Over System & Ideology

For example, this was the director who having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Power In Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized 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 adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical 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 perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using too much that system. Bring in the process guy and then bin them for taking excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.