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Transpired he endured defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed his squad for losing individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most feared football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. By masterfully outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, he has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Conflict Regarding System and Philosophy

For example, it was Jason Wilcox , after being involved in the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox might agree to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Authority Behind Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we overlook the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for the club to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style of play “will be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally better. Whom else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the acquisition of Benjamin Sesko?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to go into an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the product, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the public face for a club they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined while the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

The Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can invariably be sacked away without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for playing too much that system. Bring in the project manager and later bin them for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – remain in control.