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Itbecame clear the manager was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has proved himself to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation and Ideology

For example, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when issued by a man with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being ready to receive.

The Supreme Power In the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into a club and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined while the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach and then dismiss him for using too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then discard them for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.