Yeah i understand what you're saying.
I don't know what the official brief given to Brands was, so I can only go off my own expectations. I think he came in to find a fairly poor but not utterly hopeless squad. We'd just finished 8th, having finished 7th the season before, and most people didn't think that was good enough. Coming to the end of his second season, we're now 11th, having finished 8th again last season. That's not great, but more concerningly, I just don't really feel like we've improved as a team. We're still lacking technical ability, creativity, and pace. We're basically back to playing the same very basic football that we were playing under Allardyce in order to get results, which I really don't think is what any of us expected 2 years ago.
I'm absolutely not saying he has failed or will do. Richarlison and Digne are definitely successes, and I think signings like Nkounkou and Branthwaite are positive. I can't help feeling like we've just wasted a load of money again though. Hopefully some of them will prove me wrong, but as I said, it doesn't feel like the likes of Mina, Gomes, Bernard, Delph etc have actually improved us, either in terms of results or watchability. I know you said they've not cost a lot but that's £60m+ in fees and £300k+ week in wages for players who have us playing at the same level as we were before. That's without looking at Kean and Iwobi who maybe get a little bit more of a pass because of their age. Ultimately it's a long term project and there's (hopefully) plenty of time for things to pick up, but you also have to judge things on an ongoing basis, and right now i'd have to say that i'm a bit underwhelmed by the impact he's had on the team.