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Transpired the manager was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over System and Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Order: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not creating the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then discard him for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.