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Turns out the manager could survive losing against lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams 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 homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to tango. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Over System & Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style of play “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using excessively that system. Hire the process guy and then bin him for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.