Whilst I agree you have to adjust his metrics. Who do you compare him to?
Is his job putting together a team to stay up and work within the budget? Yes. He's therefore successful.
Is his job to build a team capable of Europe? If so he's failed.
To put the 19 points into context..
If we retained our points we'd only be 23 points off 4th.
Essentially I'm saying we'd be almost as near to 4th as we would be relegation places.