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Itbecame clear the manager endured losing against lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Over System and Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A New Soccer Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach and then dismiss them for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.