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Turns out he could survive defeat by Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at the executive and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Regarding Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style of play “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas the people who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss him for using too much that system. Hire the project manager and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.