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Iturns out he endured losing against Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Over System & Philosophy

For example, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Authority In Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Directors Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then discard them for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.