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Itranspired he endured a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Over System & Philosophy

For example, this was the director , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. 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 Power In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. 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 of play “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, 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 change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss him for using too much that system. Hire the project manager and then bin him for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.