They may well have been. They'd finished in the same league position, 3rd, and reached the Championship play off final, the season before he joined them, with Ollie Watkins banging in the goals, so were only one game away from doing it that season.
They've been a well run club on an upward trajectory ever since the takeover, and introducing their great scouting system. No single player is the reason they've made it from where they were all the way to the PL. It's been a collective effort, both on the pitch and off it.