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Turns out he could survive a loss to Grimsby. Survive a decisive continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players 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 football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Regarding Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Authority In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “shall be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply better. Who else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to join a club and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not creating the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined while the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin them for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.