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Turns out the manager could survive losing against lower-league opposition. He weathered a decisive continental showpiece against a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, undermining the team's most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to tango. If you challenge the sporting director, and you best not miss.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back during Blackburn Rovers' title-winning 1994-95 season, the coach came at the executive and seems to have missed. Even the most distracted of readers will notice the paradoxical situation: a manager who often railed his squad for losing individual battles crumbling when confronted by the intense pressure and formidable presence of one of the Premier League’s most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this entire painful saga appears to portray the director in a different perspective. It may have been easy, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard Jason Wilcox as merely a drudge within the club's structure: an individual who owed his position largely to his close relationship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any verifiable talent. How mistaken we all were. In brilliantly outmanoeuvring United’s feted manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, Jason Wilcox has proved himself as one of the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that the club's competitors will now be rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Regarding Formation and Ideology

For example, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in trying to persuade him to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth of a man the impeccable soccer background he possesses, a veteran of international appearances and a contributor to a championship team from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning publicly. Perhaps at some point he might be asked why Amorim is walking away with full compensation, without any compensation reduction clause in place. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely publicly, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals in football – men like Jason Wilcox – function on a plane exceeding our mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Wanting is not the same as being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Power In the Throne

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we are obscuring the true genius behind the club's current leadership. Jason Wilcox is, after all, merely executing the directives of his line manager the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire 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 adopt data science and analytics. According to ESPN, in an executive meeting early in his investment, he announced that United’s style to football “shall be decided by this group”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is an expert in these intricate football matters, leveraging his previous experience in industry and yachting. Above all he is immensely wealthy, and as we all know, the wealthy are the best of us: more perceptive, more wise, strategically brilliant, fundamentally superior. Whom else would you trust to oversee an enlightened programme of austerity, the construction of a new stadium that looks similar to someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of Benjamin Sesko?

A New Football Hierarchy: Directors Over Managers

This represents a shift that is becoming prevalent in top-tier of the game. For decades, teams mistakenly entrusted major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join an organization and see their vision through to completion. Yet how many businesses have such individuals set up? What number of large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive LinkedIn profiles. Better by far to determine the tactics in the boardroom and appoint someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they are now more like delivery personnel: not creating the product, but still ultimately answerable should it be delivered poorly or leaks out of the box.

In the meantime, their job has become not about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the receptionist on the front desk, the public face of an organisation they can do little to influence. Enzo Maresca leads a team of very young players into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and essentially gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged while those individuals who appointed him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Accountability Only for the Few

And possibly in a small way this represents neoliberalism at work: the rise of a privileged elite who are infallible, whose decisions are always untouchable, whose errors can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach and then fire them for playing too much that system. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest season ticket price rises, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.