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Itranspired the manager was able to withstand a loss to Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He could survive losing at home against domestic rivals, finishing 15th, his rigid approach, squandering the team's best academy products, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. You come at the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a coach who often railed at his players for losing individual battles crumbling in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint the director in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience with the Saints, to regard him as little more than a functionary within the club's structure: a man whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind that United’s mid-table rivals are now justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Regarding System and Philosophy

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach originally, was instrumental in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these pleas faced pushback. But perhaps these judgements carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with full compensation, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of ultrasonic blips and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Power 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, simply carrying out the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and metrics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that United’s style to football “will be decided by this group”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in industry and yachting. Most importantly he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

A New Football Order: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels of the game. For decades, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for a young, innovative manager with a philosophy and energy to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to invest genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to decide the strategy by the directors and appoint someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not about defining the vision and more about selling it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him live to blunder indefinitely.

The Modern Corporate Football: Responsibility for the Coaches

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be resolved by sacking without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for playing too much that system. Hire the project manager and then bin him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – remain in control.