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Itranspired the manager endured losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, Amorim took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself to be among football's true generals: a tactical intellect that United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Over System & Philosophy

For example, it was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince him to ditch his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate football matters, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Order: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, 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 have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while the people who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to fire him for using too much that system. Bring in the project manager and later discard him for taking excessive time. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.