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Turns out the manager endured losing against Grimsby. Survive an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at the executive and appears to have missed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of 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 easy, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. 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 role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt analytics and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really creating the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to fire him for playing too much that system. Hire the process guy and then discard them for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.