Do you need a full board to inform a club that you intend to pay a release clause for their coach? Obviously no, that's why there is the President and his Executives to manage things in between the few times the full board does meet.
What you call mitigating circumstances to me they were clear signs that he was out of his depth. You have to manage a team to a certain standard, no matter what and once he failed to do that he was a dead man walking. INEOS, for me, displayed shocking naivety because they should have known that Ten Hag wouldn't survive another run of poor form and it didn't begin last season either, they should have looked at his whole tenure and realized that he was only ever good for about four months and it was downhill ever since.
