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Tbecame clear the manager endured a loss to lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining some of the club’s most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. You come at the sporting director, you had better succeed.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga seems to paint 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 him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Over Formation and Philosophy

To illustrate, it was the director , after having been part of the leadership that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not equivalent to being ready to comprehend it.

An Supreme Power In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a back four. It is reported, Ratcliffe has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his investment, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, simply better. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to go into a club and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies 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 open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not creating the food, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out 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 public face of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without explanation. Hire the system coach and then fire him for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin them for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.