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Turns out the manager endured a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship 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 a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation and Ideology

For example, it was the director who having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Authority In Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for playing too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.