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Itbecame clear the manager was able to withstand losing against Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on the executive and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who frequently berated his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Regarding System and Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power In Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really creating the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability 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 invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss him for using excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and then discard them for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.