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Turns out Ruben Amorim endured defeat by Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding Formation & Philosophy

For example, it was the director , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Order: Directors Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for using excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and then discard them for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.