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Itranspired the manager could survive defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams in living memory. He could survive home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have failed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, based on his nine months of experience at Southampton, to regard him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements hold greater authority when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Ultimate Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach to football “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Order: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once feasible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy by the directors and appoint a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, yet finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach only to dismiss them for playing excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and later discard him for requiring excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.