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Itbecame clear he endured a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to tango. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and appears to have missed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over System and Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Supreme Authority In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

The New Soccer Order: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss him for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then bin him for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.