There seems to be a misunderstanding of how the club hierarchy works at LCFC. The DoF does not and never has reported the the CEO. He reports directly to the chairman, as does the CEO. They are equals rather than boss and subordinate. That means two things 1) she couldn't fire him and 2) she had no responsibility for footballing matters. Her role was strategic with responsibility for commercial and financial matters.
It's always puzzled me why she gets stick. What happens on the footballing side is something she had no control over, or responsibility for. Financially, it was relegation #1 that sunk the ship. We lost £30m in merit payments that season, and missed PSR as a result by £29m. That is all on one man IMO - Rodgers. No competent manager gets us relegated with the squad we had in 2022/23. Rudkin's responsibly was giving him that stupidly expensive deal and not sacking him quickly enough. I also think that Rodgers (and other managers subsequently) had too much influence over transfers - leading to us over paying for players we subsequently didn't want.
Whelan can be criticised for the BC Game deal but, if it was the best deal on the table at the time it's perhaps unfair, especially after the fact. Most football clubs are sponsored by betting companies and she's responsible for getting as much money in the door as she can. We'd all complain if she left millions on the table and then put up ticket prices to balance the books. And if she didn't get on with Rudkin, that's another factor in the plus column for me.
I suspect she was the one keeping a rocking ship on the right path. In time, this may prove to be a really bad departure; and she won't be short of job offers.