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Transpired he endured losing against Grimsby. He weathered an important continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home to West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, his rigid approach, squandering some of the club’s best homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to dance. You come at Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, similar to numerous Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship campaign, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and seems to have missed. The most casual observer will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who frequently berated at his players for losing one-on-one duels succumbing in the face of the intense pressure and animal charisma of a England's top division's most feared football executives.

And frankly, this entire bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been tempting, based on his brief stint of experience at Southampton, to regard him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual whose appointment was due largely to his close relationship with his former boss Omar Berrada as any demonstrable skill. How wrong everyone was. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has demonstrated as one of football's strategic masterminds: a tactical intellect that the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

The Strategic Conflict Regarding Formation and Ideology

To illustrate, this was the director who having been part of the hierarchy that hired the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim in the first place, played a key role in trying to persuade Amorim to ditch his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps such directives carry more weight when delivered by a man of a man the unimpeachable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of international appearances and a role in a title-winning side decades past.

Maybe eventually he might agree to explain his thought processes to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point he might be asked regarding why the coach is departing with a full payout, without any penalty clause in place. The director seldom speaks publicly, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers in football – individuals such as him – function on a plane beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not quite the same as being prepared to comprehend it.

The Supreme Power In Command

But of course, by focusing our attention on the sporting director we overlook the real power behind the modern United throne. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has emphasized his desire for a back four. According to reports, Ratcliffe has also suggested deploying the forward in a wing-back role. Ratcliffe is keen for United to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, in an executive meeting early in 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 these intricate football matters, leveraging his background in petrochemicals and yachting. Above all he remains incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are the best of us: more insightful, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally better. Who else could one trust to manage a strategic plan of cost-cutting, the construction of a modern arena that appears similar to an abstract design, the acquisition of a new striker?

The Modern Football Order: Executives Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels of the game. Historically, clubs foolishly entrusted big footballing decisions to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join a club and implement their plan supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys set up? How many large-scale layoffs have they managed? Better by far to place the real power where it rightly belongs: the leadership tier, the casually dressed executives, the individuals with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to decide the strategy in the boardroom and hire a coach who will adapt their methods accordingly. If coaches were once chefs, they have become more like Deliveroo drivers: not creating the product, but still finally accountable if it arrives poorly or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly not about crafting the philosophy and more about selling it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face for a club they have minimal power to influence. Enzo Maresca takes a squad of literal children into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while those individuals who hired him live to blunder another day.

A Modern Corporate Game: Responsibility Only for the Few

And perhaps on some microcosmic level this represents neoliberalism in action: the rise of a gilded elite who can never be wrong, whose decisions are always sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach only to fire them for using excessively 3-4-3. Hire the process guy and then discard them for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for the incremental season ticket price rises, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the adults – however well qualified – are in charge.