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Turns out he endured a loss to lower-league opposition. Survive losing a crucial continental showpiece versus a particularly poor Tottenham teams for many years. He withstood home defeats against West Ham and Wolves, a lowly league position, the tactical inflexibility, laying waste to some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent, a poor winning percentage, calling the squad the worst the club has ever seen. But there was a single opponent against whom the Portuguese coach would not be allowed to dance. If you challenge Jason Wilcox, and you best not miss.

Regrettably, like many a Premiership right-back during Blackburn Rovers' championship 1994-95 season, the coach took on Jason Wilcox and appears to have failed. Even the most casual observer can see the paradoxical situation: a coach who frequently berated at his players for failing in one-on-one duels crumbling when confronted by the white heat and formidable presence of a the Premier League’s most feared sporting directors.

And frankly, this whole bruising episode seems to paint the director in a whole new light. It may have been easy, given his nine months in a similar role at Southampton, to view him as little more than a functionary in the United exoskeleton: an individual whose appointment was due as much to his friendship with ex-colleague Omar Berrada as any verifiable talent. How mistaken everyone was. In brilliantly outsmarting United’s feted head coach, just as he bested the hapless Dan Ashworth earlier, he has proved himself to be among the sport’s strategic masterminds: a strategic mind that the club's competitors are now rightly wary.

A Strategic Conflict Over System & Ideology

For example, it was the director who being involved in the hierarchy that appointed the 3-4-3 fundamentalist Amorim in the first place, was instrumental in trying to persuade Amorim to abandon his beloved formation. Naturally, these entreaties were resisted. However, such directives carry more weight when delivered from the mouth with the unimpeachable soccer background of Jason Wilcox, a veteran of three England caps and a contributor to a title-winning side decades past.

Perhaps in time he might agree to outline his reasoning to the rest of us. Perhaps at some point questions may arise regarding why the coach is walking away with a full payout, without any compensation reduction clause activated. But Jason Wilcox seldom speaks in public, and with very good reason. The real thinkers of this sport – individuals such as Jason Wilcox – function at a level beyond our own prosaic understanding. Were he to speak, probably we would perceive is a series of high-frequency signals and complex calculations. Desiring an explanation is not equivalent to being prepared to receive.

An Supreme Authority In Command

But of course, in training our focus on the sporting director we are obscuring 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 emphasized his desire for a four-man defense. It is reported, the owner has also proposed playing Bryan Mbeumo in a wing-back role. The owner is eager for the club to embrace data science and metrics. Per reports, during a leadership summit early in his minority ownership, he declared that United’s style of play “shall be decided in this room”.

Ultimately, Sir Jim is a specialist in these intricate footballing stuff, drawing from his background in petrochemicals and sailing. Most importantly he is incredibly rich, and it is known, the wealthy are superior: more insightful, more wise, more tactically astute, simply superior. Who else would you 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?

A New Soccer Hierarchy: Directors Above Managers

This represents a shift we are increasingly seeing at the elite levels football. Historically, clubs foolishly delegated major sporting choices to low-level employees such as coaches, talent spotters – players themselves. Maybe previously feasible for an up-and-coming, visionary coach with ideas and drive to join an organization and implement their plan through to completion. Yet how many companies have these guys established? What number of mass redundancies have they managed? Far preferable to place genuine authority where it rightly belongs: the executive class, the open-necked shirt brigade, the guys with impressive professional resumes. Better by far to decide the tactics in the boardroom and hire someone who will adapt their methods to suit. If managers were once chefs, they are now more like Deliveroo drivers: not really responsible for the food, yet ultimately answerable if it arrives cold or fails of the box.

Nowadays, a coach's role is increasingly less about crafting the philosophy and more about marketing it: the front-facing representative on the front desk, the visible figurehead of an organisation they have minimal power to influence. A coach at Chelsea takes a squad of literal children into the Champions League and secures domestic cups, and effectively is dismissed for talking. A manager at Celtic finds his reputation ruined while those individuals who hired him continue to make errors indefinitely.

A Modern Corporate Game: Accountability for the Few

And possibly in a small way this is simply corporate governance in action: the elevation of a privileged overclass who are infallible, whose choices remain sacrosanct, whose errors can always be sacked away without explanation. Hire the 3-4-3 coach and then fire him for playing too much 3-4-3. Hire the project manager and then discard him for requiring too long. And most importantly be grateful; for your modest increases in ticket costs, for your new summer signings, for the fact that the adults – regardless of their expertise – are in charge.