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Transpired he could survive a loss to Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation & Ideology

For example, it was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power Behind the Throne

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 ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A New Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for using excessively that system. Hire the process guy and later bin him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.