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Itranspired the manager was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and seems to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a manager who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and formidable presence of a England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive earlier, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Regarding System & Philosophy

For example, this was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. However, these judgements carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – simply operate at a level exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for United to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears similar to an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

A New Football Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many businesses have these guys established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly 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 appoint a coach who can tailor their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more like delivery personnel: not really creating the food, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of very young players into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents corporate governance in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss him for using excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the project manager and later discard them for taking too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.