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Tbecame clear the manager was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering the team's most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then discard him for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.