Presumably, he would have told them if they'd asked. Ultimately, you can see what the fallout is at clubs like Everton, West Ham and many others where the DOF and the manager want different things. People can point to someone like Guardiola, but would he have been as keen if the sporting director wasn't an old friend from Barcelona? Even here, you got to a point where Klopp was picking out a lot of the players he wanted over the wishes of the backroom staff.
There's almost always going to be some level of conflict, because the managers with a big enough personality to lead a dressing room and enough knowledge to win things are probably going to be more likely to want autonomy. And why not? It's their job on the line and they have to take the flak for results publicly.
