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Iturns out he could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, undermining the team's most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Regarding Formation and Philosophy

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to go into a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many companies have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for playing too much that system. Hire the process guy and then discard them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.