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Turns out he endured a loss to Grimsby. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece against one of the worst Spurs sides for many years. He could survive losing at home against West Ham and Wolves, finishing 15th, an unwavering system, squandering some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, labeling his team the poorest in Manchester United history. But there was a single opponent with whom the Portuguese coach was not permitted to engage. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, you had better succeed.

Unfortunately, like many a Premiership right-back in Blackburn’s championship 1994-95 season, the coach came at Jason Wilcox and appears to have missed. The most casual observer can see the irony here: a manager who often railed his squad for failing in individual battles succumbing in the face of the white heat and animal charisma of a England's top division's most intimidating sporting directors.

In truth, this whole painful saga seems to paint Jason Wilcox in a different perspective. Perhaps it might have been tempting, based on his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to regard him as merely a functionary in the United exoskeleton: a man who owed his position as much to his friendship with ex-colleague a fellow executive rather than any demonstrable skill. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting the club's celebrated manager, as he outmanoeuvred the hapless Dan Ashworth before him, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s true generals: a strategic mind that United’s competitors will now be rightly wary.

A Strategic Clash Regarding System & Ideology

For example, it was Jason Wilcox who having been part of the leadership that appointed the rigid 3-4-3 advocate Amorim originally, played a key role in attempting to convince Amorim to abandon his beloved 3-4-3. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, these judgements carry more weight when issued from the mouth of a man the impeccable football pedigree of Jason Wilcox, holder of three England caps and a role in a championship team decades past.

Perhaps in time Jason Wilcox may be persuaded to explain his reasoning to the rest of us. Maybe one day questions may arise why Amorim is walking away with a full payout, with no penalty clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, for excellent reasons. The true intellectuals of this sport – men like him – function at a level beyond our own mundane comprehension. Were he to speak, most likely we would perceive would be high-frequency signals and four-dimensional whirring. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

The Supreme Power Behind Command

Naturally, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring 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 in private has made very clear his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also suggested playing Bryan Mbeumo as a right wing-back. Ratcliffe is keen for the club to adopt analytics and analytics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he announced that the team's approach to football “will be determined by this group”.

Ultimately, Ratcliffe is an expert in this technical footballing stuff, drawing from his previous experience in industry and sailing. Above all he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the rich are superior: more perceptive, sagacious, more tactically astute, fundamentally superior. Whom else could one trust to oversee an enlightened programme of cost-cutting, the building of a new stadium that appears a lot like someone’s leftover knitting, the signing of a new striker?

A Modern Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Over Coaches

This is a trend we are increasingly seeing in top-tier football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated big footballing decisions to low-level employees like managers, scouts – even footballers. Perhaps it was once possible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and energy to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. But how many businesses have these guys established? How many large-scale layoffs have they overseen? Better by far to place the real power where it belongs: the leadership tier, the open-necked shirt brigade, the individuals with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to determine the strategy by the directors and hire a coach who will adapt their methods to suit. If coaches were formerly chefs, they are now more akin to delivery personnel: not really responsible for the product, but still finally accountable should it be delivered cold or leaks out to meet standards.

Nowadays, a coach's role has become not about defining the vision and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative of the operation, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to change. A coach at Chelsea leads a team of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively gets sacked for talking. Wilfried Nancy sees his reputation ruined whereas the people who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability for the Coaches

And possibly on some microcosmic level this is simply corporate governance in action: the rise of a privileged overclass who can never be wrong, whose decisions remain sacrosanct, whose mistakes can always be sacked away without justification. Appoint the system coach and then dismiss him for using excessively that system. Bring in the project manager and then bin them for requiring excessive time. And above all show gratitude; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for the latest player acquisitions, for the reality that the grownups – however well qualified – are in charge.