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Itranspired the manager could survive losing against Grimsby. He weathered losing a crucial continental showpiece versus one of the worst Tottenham teams in living memory. He withstood losing at home to domestic rivals, finishing 15th, the tactical inflexibility, squandering the team's best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning campaign, the coach took on the executive and appears to have failed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for failing in one-on-one duels succumbing when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared football executives.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a whole new light. It may have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view Jason Wilcox as little more than a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position largely to his friendship with his former boss a fellow executive as any demonstrable skill. How wrong we all were. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted manager, just as he bested the hapless a previous executive before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself to be among football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect of which United’s competitors are now justifiably concerned.

A Strategic Conflict Over System & Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, these judgements hold greater authority when issued by a man with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to explain his thought processes publicly. Maybe one day questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with full compensation, without any penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Ultimate Power In Command

Naturally, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, simply carrying out the commands of his ultimate line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. It is reported, the owner has also proposed deploying the forward in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, in an executive meeting soon after his investment, he declared that the team's approach of play “will be determined in this room”.

After all, Sir Jim is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his background in industry and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who else would you trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the building of a modern arena that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend that is becoming prevalent at the elite levels football. Historically, teams mistakenly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously possible for an up-and-coming, innovative manager with a philosophy and drive to join a club and see their vision through to completion. But how many companies have such individuals established? How many mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to place the real power where it belongs: the executive class, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy in the boardroom and appoint a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were once chefs, they are now more akin to Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, but still finally accountable if it arrives cold or leaks out to meet standards.

In the meantime, a coach's role is increasingly less about defining the vision and more about selling 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 Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for speaking out. A manager at Celtic sees his reputation ruined whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors another day.

The Neoliberal Football: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this is simply neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded overclass who can never be wrong, whose choices are always untouchable, whose errors can always be resolved by sacking without justification. Hire the system coach only to fire him for playing excessively that system. Bring in the process guy and then discard them for requiring excessive time. And most importantly show gratitude; for your modest season ticket price rises, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – remain in control.