Mark, I completely agree with you on this one.
I find that a pretty pointless argument, it's up to him to nail that top-8 place and if he hasn't done it by now then it's completely his own fault.
Also, when he was injured and missed the few tournaments, his ranking never suffered as bad as other players who've been out for injuries sustained. Since reaching 8th ranking (which lasted for 2 weeks), he only ever dropped as far down as 22nd, which was in April of this year. I agree that letting Brad go after working with him for what a year and a half was probably too soon.