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Turns out he could survive losing against lower-league opposition. Survive an important continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Clash Over System & Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director who having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Football Order: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss him for playing too much that system. Hire the process guy and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.