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Itranspired 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 West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst 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' title-winning campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. The most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Regarding System & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was the director , after being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince him to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being ready to receive.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The New Football Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for playing excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and then bin him for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.