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Transpired the manager could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team 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 the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for losing individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Conflict Regarding System & Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Ultimate Authority In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not creating the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach and then fire him for playing too much that system. Bring in the process guy and later discard them for taking excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.