The appointment of Benitez was always going to be a terrible one, unless he came out the blocks and had us near the top of the table.
The reality is, the manager can only work with what he's got, and they're an uninspired bunch of lazy players, with no motivation. That's what jumping in the deep end with lofty ambitions does for you. He needs time, but because of his past connections, our fan base will never get there.
From Walsh & Koeman, to Allardyce and the rest, he's just got it wrong on a regular basis and set us back years.
We're the example of how to not spend money, with the likes of Sigurdsson, Tosun, Walcott, Bolasie, Gomes all brought in for bumper fees, and little or no effort focussed on "Buy Low, Sell High" or the Youth Team, which is probably in it's longest run in our history, without producing any talent.
6 years on, we're somehow in a worse place, and seem to have accepted mediocrity.