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Itranspired the manager could survive a loss to Grimsby. Survive a decisive European final against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, squandering some of the club’s best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the irony here: a coach who often railed at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

In truth, this entire bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his brief stint in a similar role with the Saints, to view 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 Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Over Formation and Ideology

For example, this was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in attempting to convince him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, these pleas were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered by a man with the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Authority In the Throne

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt data science and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, 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, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Who else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the building of a modern arena that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

The New Football Order: Executives Over Managers

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they can do little to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Football: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance at work: the rise of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for using excessively that system. Hire the project manager and later bin them for requiring too long. And above all be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.