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Turns out he was able to withstand losing against Grimsby. He weathered an important European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim was not permitted to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim came at the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Conflict Over System & Ideology

For example, it was the director , after having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Power In Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style of play “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Football Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach and then dismiss him for using excessively that system. Hire the process guy and later discard them for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.