But the new manager will have lowered expectations in the first few Serie A games.
The joke would have lowered expectations while gently reminding his supporters of what he must suspect they already know.
The outlook has lowered expectations that the Bank of Japan, which is starting a two-day policy meeting on Monday, will take any imminent measures to ease monetary policy.
He says that repeating his Iowa performance and coming in second here would be a dream come true — and he has lowered expectations that he might.
Disappointing figures at the US box office have lowered expectations for that film, but salvation may be at hand: Universal has yanked up the release of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's comedy Sisters six days to Saturday 12 December.
"The Republicans, knowing they will get crushed, have lowered expectations so much that Bush would have to wilt and slither off the stage," Mr. Sturla said, "for his performance to be judged a surprise and a failure".
Mrs. Clinton's victory came after her advisers had lowered expectations with talk of missteps in strategy and concern about Mr. Obama's momentum after his first-place finish in Iowa.
Eating under the nose of Big Brother might have horrified diners of an earlier age, but the surveillance camera as a fixture of modern life — in lobbies, doorways, airports and shopping malls — seems to have lowered expectations of public privacy.
On Thursday, Jan Pronk, the overseer of the two-week meeting and the Dutch environment minister, had lowered expectations a notch, saying there would doubtless be issues that would be delayed and text that would remain unwritten.
That struggle explains why, to some degree, excitement over the visit from a fellow German-speaker seems muted in Austria, so much so that the Vatican has lowered expectations over how big the crowds might be.
