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Itbecame clear the manager could survive a loss to Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to the team's most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most casual observer can see the irony here: a coach who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a tactical intellect that the club's mid-table rivals are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Over Formation and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, 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 thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals of this sport – individuals such as him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Power In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, after all, merely executing the commands of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be decided by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the rich are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The New Football Order: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the tactics by the directors and appoint someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not creating the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach only to dismiss them for using too much that system. Bring in the process guy and later bin him for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.