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Iturns out he endured a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have failed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole 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 him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Over System & Philosophy

For example, it was the director who being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss him for playing excessively that system. Hire the project manager and later discard them for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.