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Iturns out the manager could survive defeat by Grimsby. He weathered a decisive European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach came at the executive and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Over System & Philosophy

For example, this was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he might agree to explain his thought processes 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 real thinkers of this sport – men like him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his investment, 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, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach and then fire him for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then bin him for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.