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Turns out he could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over System and Ideology

For example, this was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like him – function on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Football Order: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of 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 impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become 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 effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin them for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.