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Tbecame clear the manager endured losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim came at the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Over Formation and Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Power Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Order: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals established? How many 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 impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team 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 Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin them for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.