The option is there but it is not fleshed out properly and it has very little depth, which in my opinion leads to a massively frustrating playing experience. The main issue is that the DoF makes decisions in isolation from you the manager/first team coach, rather than making decisions together as a team. Im hoping its improved in FM24 as this is how I want to play - and from the forums it seems like a lot of people want to play like this.
Just a few of the glaring issues with it:
If the DoF is set to renew player contracts you cant talk to the DoF to give your view on a player - to say whether you think they have a role going forward and how often you think they will play (playing time). This leads to the DoF renewing contracts of players on big wages that you never play, or not renewing contracts of players you always play
To get around this you can make it so that the DoF will only try renew the contract of players you tell them to - but in this case STILL you cant tell them what expected playing time to give them, which leads to negotiations breaking down VERY often
If you set a player as a transfer target the DoF will not make multiple bids for the player, they will make one bid and if its unsuccessful they will leave it at that. This means you wont be able to buy most players
They dont offer a lot of your best youth academy prospects a contract during the trial period
In my experience they have found it extremely difficult to come to contract renewal agreements on your most talented u18 players due to salary demands, so you lose most of them
There are two options for using a DoF:
Either you let them choose who to buy and sell - but when they do this they dont take into account your playing style, the type of players you need for your tactic and how you think players will progress. And you cant give them suggestions for transfer targets. This means the DoF builds an unbalanced squad that doesnt fit your tactics
Or you tell them who you want them to buy and sell (which kind of defeats the purpose of having a DoF) - but in this case their negotiating skills are often subpar, you cant tell them the expected playing time for contract renewals which then impacts the wage they give and leads to contract renewals failing even though the player isnt asking for much. The main cause of this is that you and the DoF can have wildly different views of a player, for example: I viewed a player as a key player (and his current playing time matched that) however the DoF viewed him as a squad player, which meant even the player had modest salary demands the DoF wouldnt match it. This issue happens often. The telling them who to sell feature doesnt really work either as if an unsolicited bid for a player comes in you cant tell the DoF to reject any transfer offers - you have to do it yourself (which means you are subverting the DoF which doesnt make sense)
The reason for this is likely because this is not a main feature, the design of the game is catered for not using a DoF, but of course football has changed so hopefully FM updates with it. Training should have much more depth than transfers in my opinion, as that reflects the responsibilities of a modern manager.