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Transpired the manager could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to tango. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Regarding System and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – function on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

The 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, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A New Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many companies have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for playing too much that system. Hire the process guy and then discard them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.