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Transpired Ruben Amorim was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have failed. The most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Over System and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Authority In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Order: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for playing excessively that system. Hire the process guy and later discard him for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.