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Turns out the manager could survive defeat by Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who frequently berated at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself as one of football's true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Regarding Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Order: Directors Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then discard them for taking excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.