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Transpired he could survive a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive an important European final versus a particularly poor Spurs sides in living memory. He withstood home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership defender in Blackburn’s championship campaign, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared sporting directors.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind of which United’s mid-table rivals will now be rightly wary.

A Tactical Clash Over System & Ideology

To illustrate, this was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate the coach in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued from the mouth with the impeccable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, holder of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. The director speaks rarely publicly, and with very good reason. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – simply operate at a level exceeding our mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not quite the same as being ready to receive.

An Ultimate Authority In Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the commands 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 proposed deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace data science and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style to football “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in industry and sailing. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Whom else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to go into an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. But how many businesses have such individuals established? What number of large-scale layoffs have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the tactics by the directors and appoint someone who can tailor their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not responsible for the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, 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 of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic sees his standing damaged while the people who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly in a small way this is simply neoliberalism in action: the elevation of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire them for playing excessively 3-4-3. Bring in the process guy and then bin him for taking excessive time. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for your new player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.