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Itbecame clear the manager could survive losing against lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over System and Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Authority 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. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really creating the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach and then dismiss him for playing too much that system. Hire the process guy and later discard them for taking excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.