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Itranspired he endured losing against Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over System and Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Authority In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Football Order: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager 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? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach and then dismiss them for using excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and later discard them for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.