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Iturns out Ruben Amorim could survive losing against Grimsby. Survive a decisive European final against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind that United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding System and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – 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. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face for a club they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss them for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and later bin him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.