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Itranspired the manager could survive losing against Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's most promising academy products, the 32% win rate, labeling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed his squad for losing individual battles succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of a England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Over Formation & Ideology

For example, this was the director , after having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas met a certain resistance. However, such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, most likely all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Wanting is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Power In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “shall be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a new stadium that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier football. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. But how many businesses have these guys set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to invest genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the guys with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their offering accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the food, yet finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. 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 speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Hire the system coach and then fire him for playing excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and later bin him for taking too long. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.