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Itranspired he could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, undermining some of the club’s best academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director , after being involved in 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. Unsurprisingly, these entreaties met a certain resistance. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

The Ultimate Authority Behind the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, simply carrying out the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style of play “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of a new striker?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their offering accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or fails to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job has become 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 leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then fire them for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then bin them for requiring too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.