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Itranspired he was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s best 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. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on Jason Wilcox 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 individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Over Formation and Ideology

For example, this was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Supreme Power In the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Football Order: Directors Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss him for using too much that system. Bring in the process guy and later bin him for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.