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Itranspired he was able to withstand defeat by lower-league opposition. Survive an important continental showpiece against one of the worst Tottenham teams for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, the 32% win rate, labeling his team the worst in Manchester United history. Yet, there existed one adversary against whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to tango. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a top-flight right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most distracted of readers will notice the irony here: a manager who frequently berated his squad for losing individual battles succumbing when confronted by the intense pressure and animal charisma of a England's top division's most intimidating football executives.

In truth, this whole painful saga appears to portray Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. It may have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role with the Saints, to view him as merely a drudge within the club's structure: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has demonstrated as one of football's true generals: a strategic mind of which United’s competitors are now rightly wary.

The Tactical Clash Regarding Formation and Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who being involved in 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 favored formation. Naturally, these entreaties faced pushback. But perhaps such directives hold greater authority when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background he possesses, holder of three England caps and a role in a title-winning side from 31 years ago.

Maybe eventually he might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day he might be asked why Amorim is departing with a full payout, with no compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox speaks rarely in public, for excellent reasons. The real thinkers of this sport – men like him – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. If he ever did speak, most likely all we would hear would be ultrasonic blips and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not the same as being ready to comprehend it.

An Ultimate Authority Behind Command

But of course, in training our focus on Jason Wilcox we overlook the true genius behind the club's current leadership. The director is, in reality, merely executing the directives of his superior the billionaire owner, who privately has made very clear his desire for a back four. According to reports, the owner has also suggested deploying the forward as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to embrace data science and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit soon after his investment, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical football matters, leveraging his previous experience in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he remains incredibly rich, and as we all know, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, sagacious, strategically brilliant, simply superior. Who 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?

The New Soccer Order: Directors Over Coaches

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 – even footballers. Maybe previously feasible for a young, visionary coach with a philosophy and drive to join an organization and see their vision supported to fruition. Yet how many companies have these guys established? How many mass redundancies have they overseen? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with the jaw-dropping professional resumes. It is wiser to determine the strategy in the boardroom and hire someone who can tailor their methods accordingly. If managers were formerly chefs, they have become more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the food, yet 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 marketing it: the receptionist of the operation, the public face for a club they can do little to influence. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of very young players into Europe and secures two medium-sized trophies, and effectively is dismissed for talking. Wilfried Nancy finds his standing damaged whereas those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Neoliberal Game: Responsibility for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance at work: the elevation of a privileged elite who can never be wrong, whose choices are always sacrosanct, whose errors can invariably be resolved by sacking without justification. Appoint the 3-4-3 coach and then dismiss them for using too much that system. Hire the process guy and later bin him for taking too long. And above all be grateful; for the incremental increases in ticket costs, for the latest summer signings, for the fact that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.