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Transpired he was able to withstand losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered an important European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight defender during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and seems to have missed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for losing one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this entire painful saga appears to portray 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 within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind of which the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Over Formation & Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Authority In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the commands of his line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, leveraging his background in industry and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that appears similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Order: Executives Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many companies have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative 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 Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and essentially is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And perhaps in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss him for playing too much that system. Bring in the process guy and later bin him for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.