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Itbecame clear he was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for losing individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Conflict Over System and Philosophy

For example, this was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Football Order: Directors Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach only to fire them for playing excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and later bin them for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.