This paper draws on John Kenneth Galbraith’s bestselling book, The Anatomy of Power, to reflect on the operation of power in the context of a professional soccer club. Galbraith’s framework, which is composed of three sources and three instruments of power, is first described and then illustrated via an analysis of José Mourinho’s brief tenure as manager of Manchester United. The findings offer support for Galbraith’s suggestion that the role of ‘personality’ (in this case managerial personality) is often overemphasized in accounts of power. The paper concludes with a discussion of Galbraith’s ‘dialectic of power’ – its tendency to produce countervailing expressions and positions – and focuses in particular on the social media-enhanced power of celebrity players.