The thing with Brands is, as you say, the constant undermining - he quit around Xmas IIRC the second his PSV job was back, and PSV are back at recruiting well, SHOCKINGLY. People also slag him off but we're currently nurturing some of the talents he brought in himself in the youth/second team, like for example Branthwaite and no doubt others. He didn't do a fantastic job and as I said - it's not all hits, there is a gamble element to the development of players, but it seems to work in the long run for teams that want to compete with younger talent and use recruitment.Brands was known for wanting a model of buying younger talent, nurturing it and building for the future with sell on value. This is akin to PSV, Ajax, Brighton etc.
After Silva went, Carlo came in and brought in older players, on higher wales and with no sell-on value. Now, I'm not discussing or discrediting Carlo here...
... but, as a DoF this must undermine the whole long-term plan you have, if responsibility for transfers and talent is split with others, or you're simply overruled.
What was the long term plan? We already know Moshiri had form for meddling in transfers, and we know that Bill liked to have his mucky fingers in negotiations.
So, was it ever going to work? Again, I ain't saying Brands was blameless, far from it, but I perceive that the situation was probably chaotic, at best.
We have no long term plan and won't let him do his job, for us - it makes no sense until this changes. It's a proven good model when it's transparent and everyone knows what they do, but alas.
BTW, the Brighton technical director (or similar, "loan manager" more accurately I guess) is David Weir lol