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Transpired he endured defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Over System & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and sailing. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for playing excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and then bin him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.