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Turns out Ruben Amorim could survive a loss to Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view him as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Over Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director who being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like him – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his background in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Order: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach and then fire them for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.