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Tbecame clear the manager could survive defeat by Grimsby. Survive an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, he has proved himself to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Over System and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

An Supreme Authority Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and later bin him for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.