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Transpired the manager could survive losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive European final against a particularly poor Spurs sides for many years. He could survive home defeats to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in individual battles succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, he has proved himself as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Regarding Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Power In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “shall be determined in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for playing too much that system. Hire the project manager and later bin him for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.