Nobody guaranteed anything with the LHC. It's good to have a clear hypothesis for an experiment (especially an expensive one), and the predictions for the mass

Nobody guaranteed anything with the LHC. It's good to have a clear hypothesis for an experiment (especially an expensive one), and the predictions for the mass of the Higgs boson was a good starting hypothesis for the LHC. But there was also the expectation that, colliding at higher energies than ever before, there would be the opportunity for unexpected discoveries. The proof that the brief for the LHC was more than just "find the Higgs" is that the LHC found the Higgs, yet is still operating--and is just about to get a time-consuming and expensive upgrade in luminosity.