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Tbecame clear he could survive a loss to Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this entire bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Regarding Formation & Philosophy

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the impeccable 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 walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Authority In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible 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 businesses have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach and then dismiss them for playing too much that system. Hire the process guy and then discard them for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.