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Transpired the manager could survive losing against Grimsby. Survive an important continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Regarding Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Order: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach and then fire him for using too much that system. Bring in the project manager and then discard them for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.