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Tbecame clear he was able to withstand defeat by Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to tango. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding System and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he might agree to explain his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Authority In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to adopt analytics and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that the team's approach of play “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, simply better. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Order: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to fire them for playing excessively that system. Hire the project manager and later bin them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.