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Iturns out the manager endured defeat by lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive European final versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood home defeats to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, undermining the team's best academy products, the 32% win rate, calling his team the worst the club has ever seen. Yet, there existed one adversary with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of one of England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole bruising episode appears to portray the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as merely a drudge in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the unfortunate Dan Ashworth before him, he has demonstrated to be among football's true generals: a strategic mind that the club's competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

The Tactical Conflict Regarding System & 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, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his favored 3-4-3. Unsurprisingly, 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 three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Maybe eventually he may be persuaded to outline his reasoning publicly. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. The director speaks rarely in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers in football – men like him – simply operate on a plane beyond our own mundane comprehension. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being ready to receive.

The Supreme Authority Behind Command

Naturally, by focusing our attention on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who in private has emphasized his preference for a four-man defense. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. The owner is eager for United to embrace analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, during a leadership summit soon after his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach of play “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains immensely wealthy, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply better. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that looks a lot like an abstract design, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to subordinate staff like managers, scouts – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for a young, innovative manager with ideas and energy to go into a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of mass redundancies have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping LinkedIn profiles. It is wiser to determine the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their offering to suit. If managers were once chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, yet finally accountable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for speaking out. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices are always untouchable, whose mistakes can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the system coach only to fire him for playing excessively 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later discard him for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the fact that the grownups – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.