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Transpired the manager was able to withstand defeat by Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to the team's most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of a the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, based on his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals will now be justifiably concerned.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding System & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to ditch his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. However, such directives hold greater authority when issued by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Power Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else would you trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Coaches

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics by the directors and hire someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the product, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged while the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for using too much 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later bin them for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.