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Transpired he could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at the executive and appears to have failed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as merely a functionary within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Over System and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was the director who 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 him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later bin him for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.