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Turns out Ruben Amorim was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to the team's most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Over System and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like him – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist 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 the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin him for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.