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Turns out he could survive losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach only to fire them for using excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and then discard him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.