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Tbecame clear he was able to withstand defeat by Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, similar to numerous top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Strategic Clash Over Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his beloved formation. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Authority Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else could one trust to manage an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many companies have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: 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 less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then discard them for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.