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Tbecame clear the manager could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has proved himself as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Over System and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was the director who having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Authority In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox 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 four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach and then fire them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin him for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.