Really hope they come back. Would much rather have the likes of them and Villa back than have the likes of Bournemouth or Brighton. I don't mean any disrespect to those clubs by that, it's just Premier League in a perfect world would be the traditional top 20 clubs in England.
Darron Gibson clearly needs help as a human being, forget Gibson the footballer. The club should take him away from first team football and tell him that until he gets himself sorted then they can't trust him on the pitch. If he refuses to help him himself then there's really nothing they can do.
I thought the likes of Lamina Kone and Wahbi Khazri who clearly have a bit of ability would get moves. On the other hand, their appalling attitudes last season means that other clubs probably view them as bad eggs who won't fight when the going gets tough and deservedly so. Defoe fought from the first minute of the season until the last and lo and behold he had a queue of clubs lined up offering him contracts. Pickford too, we couldn't wait to poach him and I'm for one over the moon he's here to be our number 1 for many years to come.
In hindsight losing Allardyce was a massive disaster for them as a club, he was clearly a great fit as manager. For him to leave for England (then get sacked after 1 game) is incredible bad luck. I understand why Ellis wanted to stick with Moyes as a long-term project but in hindsight the right thing to do last season around Christmas/January time would have been to sack him and offer Allardyce the keys to the city to come back, that's the only scenario I could imagine of them being able to have rescued themselves.
Good luck to them, hope they kick out the dirge, re-group and come back stronger.