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Iturns out the manager was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom Ruben Amorim would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Conflict Over Formation & Philosophy

For example, this was the director , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

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 of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later bin them for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.