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Transpired he could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, 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 coach who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Regarding System and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Power In the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Executives Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. 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 rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then fire them for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and then discard them for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.