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Turns out he could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation and Ideology

For example, it was the director , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really creating the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss him for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later discard them for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.