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Transpired he could survive a loss to Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have failed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Clash Regarding System & Philosophy

For example, this was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

An Supreme Authority Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the directives of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices 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 join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many companies have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or fails to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while the people who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then discard him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.