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Transpired the manager could survive losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered losing a crucial European final against one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, undermining the team's most promising academy products, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership defender during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach took on the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. Perhaps it might have been easy, based on his nine months of experience with the Saints, to regard Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive as any verifiable talent. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation & Philosophy

To illustrate, it was Jason Wilcox , after having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox might agree to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked regarding why the coach is walking away 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 – men like him – function on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power Behind the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the modern United throne. Jason Wilcox is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for United to embrace analytics and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be decided in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the rich are superior: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else could one trust to oversee a strategic plan of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that appears a lot like an abstract design, the signing of a new striker?

The Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to subordinate staff such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with ideas and drive to join a club and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many businesses have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they have minimal power to change. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into Europe and wins domestic cups, and essentially is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without explanation. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach only to fire them for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then bin them for taking too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.