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Itbecame clear he could survive losing against Grimsby. Survive a decisive European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Over Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really creating the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for playing excessively that system. Hire the project manager and later discard him for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.