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Transpired he was able to withstand a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive a decisive continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated head coach, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Over System and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he announced that United’s style of play “will be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance at work: the elevation of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then discard him for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.