I agree that there's a hell of a lot more to it than money, but I believe the same applies to managers.
Everybody says, "Ooh, aah!" when a manager leads a team to promotion, and he is immediately labelled "brilliant" by fans and the media. Very often, the same guy is a flop within a season or two - sometimes with the same club!
Reducing success in football to ONE criterion is ridiculous. Apart from with the top PL teams (which I could probably manage quite successfully!!), the whole business involves a wide combination of factors - including luck, even.
I played four team-games in my younger days, and when I put in a poor performance (a regular occurrence!), I never once thought it was the manager's or the coach's fault. That's why I'm mystified when a manager at League level gets blamed for everything - even down to individual errors from players.
Incidentally, I really don't think you can say Graham is past it and a liability. He was our best player last season, and I doubt that he has spent the summer boozing and eating deep-fried Mars Bars.