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Tbecame clear he endured losing against Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation and Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Power In the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power 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 made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style of play “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for playing excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and then bin him for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.