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Transpired he could survive losing against lower-league opposition. Survive an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering the team's most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, Amorim took on the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Regarding System & Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his thought processes publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did 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 ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Power Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. 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 announced that the team's approach to football “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly 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 can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged while the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to dismiss him for playing too much that system. Hire the project manager and later discard them for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.