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Tbecame clear he could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Conflict Over System and Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director who being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Power Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear 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 the club to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A New Football Order: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly 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 a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many companies have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Few

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 mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach only to fire them for playing excessively that system. Hire the project manager and later bin him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.