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Turns out Ruben Amorim endured defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Regarding Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Power Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director 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. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach only to fire them for playing excessively that system. Hire the process guy and later discard him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.