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Transpired the manager endured losing against Grimsby. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim came at the executive and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has proved himself as one of football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Clash Regarding Formation & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet 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 rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then bin them for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.