he had no idea it was difficult
his dad had commercial instinct.(and many other business and inter personal assets). Things you can’t teach. Top doesn’t. so he had to surround himself with extremely capable people. Whelan was someone who was capable but she had no involvement in the footballing side and when the footballing side failed to meet its part of the the financial equations set, she was effectively told to make the best of it.
we are where we are because Rudkin was way out of his depth and top didn’t trust anyone else to be involved at such a high level on the football side.