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Turns out the manager could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding System and Philosophy

For example, it was the director who being involved in the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Power Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their methods accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Hire the system coach only to dismiss them for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and later bin him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.