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Iturns out the manager endured losing against Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, a lowly league position, an unwavering system, undermining the team's best homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to engage. You come at Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, similar to numerous Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s title-winning campaign, the coach came at the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed at his players for losing individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and formidable presence of one of England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, given his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. By masterfully outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, just as he bested the unfortunate a previous executive earlier, he has demonstrated to be among the sport’s true generals: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors will now be justifiably concerned.

A Tactical Conflict Over Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince him to abandon his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued by a man with the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Perhaps in time he may be persuaded to outline his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – individuals such as him – simply operate on a plane exceeding our prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, probably we would perceive is a series of ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power In the Throne

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring the real power behind the club's current leadership. The director is, after all, merely executing the directives of his ultimate superior Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who privately has emphasized his preference for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be determined by this group”.

After all, Ratcliffe is a specialist in this technical football matters, drawing from his previous experience in industry and yachting. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Who else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A New Football Hierarchy: Executives Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. For decades, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – players themselves. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to go into an organization and implement their plan supported to fruition. 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 belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics by the directors and hire someone who can tailor their offering accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not really creating the product, but still ultimately answerable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and wins domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined while those individuals who appointed him live to blunder another day.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And possibly on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a gilded overclass who are infallible, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose mistakes can invariably be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach only to dismiss them for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and later discard them for requiring too long. And above all show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.