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Iturns out he endured defeat by Grimsby. He weathered an important European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, Amorim came at the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his nine months of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Conflict Regarding Formation and Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like him – simply operate at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power Behind the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention 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 superior the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach and then fire him for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and later discard him for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.