We fielded a team today that included:
Every single one of those players is either mediocre or has been playing mediocre for aaaages, or is <21 years old and really has no business playing at the top end of the Premier League right now (and they aren't!).
Mustafi literally no club wants, Lampard would rather play Kurt Zouma than David Luiz, Xhaka would be playing for Hertha Berlin right now if Arteta hadn't convinced him to stay, Özil gets linked to rubbish Turkish clubs or worse . . . What do we expect?
The quality of the players is the be all and end all at a football club. A coach can knit it all together and give those players a framework to play from, and, of course, he is the guy that has to have a vision for the squad he wants to build, but, ultimately, you want to win and beat everyone else? You gotta have the best players. If we want to get back into the top 4 we need make sure we have better players next season than Leicester, Tottenham, Chelsea and United, assuming Liverpool and City, for different reasons, are way too far ahead to think about catching in one window.