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Turns out he was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Over System & Philosophy

For example, it was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from 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 better. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss him for using too much that system. Bring in the project manager and later discard him for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.