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Turns out the manager could survive defeat by Grimsby. He weathered an important European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to tango. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach took on the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Over System & Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps 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 questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Football Order: Directors Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not creating the food, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for playing too much that system. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.