Brands certainly has plenty to answer for.
Can't remember exactly who has been brought in under his tenure, but I am sure the likes of Tosun, Walcott and Iwobi (80m and over 200 thousand a week in wages) all signed in his time, and two of them have proven to be gigantic failures, the other will be average at best - certainly not a player who would get in any top 7 team.
His failure to correct the managerial situation is baffling at best, also, which is the most important of the whole lot.
I do applaud his signings of Mina, Kean, Digne and to an extent Gomes, although the initial buzz about Gomes has worn off on me since his Villa performance and general injury record.