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Turns out he endured a loss to Grimsby. He weathered an important European final versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim came at the executive and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined while the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss him for using excessively that system. Hire the process guy and then discard him for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.