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Iturns out the manager could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive an important continental showpiece versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Regarding Formation & Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the leadership 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 beloved formation. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Order: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have these guys established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach and then dismiss him for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and then bin them for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.