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Itbecame clear Ruben Amorim endured a loss to Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over System & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

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 big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach and then dismiss him for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin him for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.