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Itbecame clear the manager was able to withstand losing against Grimsby. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have failed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation & Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The New Football Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for taking excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.