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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim came at the executive and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like him – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Authority In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Order: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little 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 whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then discard him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.